Rinpungpa - Setbacks in The East

Setbacks in The East

Due to pressure from the Karmapa and their Rinpungpa patrons, the Gelugpa school were forbidden to participate in the new year celebration and the great Monlam ceremony in Lhasa between 1498 and 1517. After the deaths of the powerful princes Tsokye Dorje (1510) and Donyo Dorje (1512), however, the power of the Rinpungpa declined. In the early sixteenth century Ngawang Tashi Drakpa of the Phagmodrupa managed to regain a degree of influence. He was friendly disposed to the Gelugpa leader Gedun Gyatso (posthumously counted as the second Dalai Lama), and the Karmapa faction was expelled from Lhasa. The direct power of Rinpungpa in Ü was henceforth limited.