Part Thirty Five: Tsenpo Purgyal Selbar VIII 'the Great' (1396 to 1449 AD)
Tsenpo Selbar VIII in 1396 AD.
Part Thirty Five: Tsenpo Purgyal Selbar VIII 'the Great' (1396 to 1449 AD)
The eight Selbar to take the Tibetan throne resembled his father in shape more than character. The twisted spine, so evident in Selbar the Lionheart had been inherited by his son as were the dark eyes and leonine mane of hair falling back across his shoulders. There were certain similarities to their personalities, for Young Selbar was also given to kindness and religious tolerance, a man readily given to conversation. Those links only made the differences starker.
Selbar VIII was first and foremost a soldier and his long reign would be marked by some of the most important and bloody clashes Tibet had ever seen. From his youth he had practiced the skills of a warrior, swordsmanship and riding. Despite his physical misfortune he had stubbornly practiced until he was as strong and agile as any of his guards and for most of his rule he preferred the traditional lammelar armour of Tibet (byang bu'i khrab) to civilian robes of state. What made his skill in combat all the more striking was that he had been forced to learn the ways of combat anew after the loss of a hand in a strange business in his his early reign.
All Tibetans had a fascination with magic and Selbar was no exception. The Tsenpo was not an academic sorcerer like his ancestor Saint Selbar but he did seek out fascinating and strange individuals. When it was said that a hermit in Persia had learned the secret language of lions or a woman of Western China could read the mysteries of past and future in dreams the Tsenpo was always eager to learn more. A procession of astrologers, conjurers and talismancers arrived in Lhasa over the years. Many - most - were unceremoniously kicked out of the Imperial presence after being exposed as charlatans, for while Selbar passionately believed in magic he was no fool. It was in November 1405 that the most intriguing of all of these characters first arrived in Lhasa. She had been discovered, if that is the right word by Selbar's Marshal Devitara, and even among the bizarre individuals who paid court to the Tsenpo she would have stood out.
Youma the Fearless arrives in Lhasa, November 1405 AD.
Contemporary chroniclers universally insisted that Youma 'the Fearless' hailed from Africa but everything else about her, including why or how she ended up in Tibet remains an enigma. One theory holds that she was a mercenary of sorts who had served the Mansurids before finding herself moving ever East. Certainly by all accounts she was a formidable warrior, a trait that much impressed the solder monarch Selbar. Whatever her story this woman that 'seemed a living thing of steel and fire', and conducted herself before grand potentates as if she was the mistress and they the slave claimed to know secrets that had escaped the knowledge of the wisest of scholars. For more than half a year she would be the Tsenpo's companion, drawing him away from the court camarilla of officers that had hitherto been his social circle. Many courtiers felt uneasy about the tall, silent figure who strode down the corridors of the Tsenpo's palace sending monks and functionaries scurrying away like mice.
Matters came to a head in the July of 1406 when Lhasa lay drowsy under cloudless skies and the stench from the horse markets hammered at the door to every household like a barbarian invasion. The palace was an oasis of cool breezes thanks to its height and cunning design but even here the hard light made sleep impossible and the rooms deep within the heart of the building seemed to keep more than their usual secrets. At the command of Youma, Selbar had paid for an antelope to be captured and brought alive to Lhasa. Not one of the timid native Tibetan chiru, whose soft fine wool called shahtoosh had brought so much wealth to the Empire, but one of the wild and powerful breed of Persia.
The misfortune which ended Selbar's attempts to seek immortality...
The gruesome incident that saw Selbar all but lose the use of his hand and Youma vanish from Lhasa for parts unknown has provided material for court gossips, dramatists, conspiracy theorists and even real historians ever since. Whatever really happened will probably never be fully revealed. Selbar did not win immortality, but nor did he allow his misfortune to set him back. Whether out of sheer stubborness or innate optimism the Tsenpo returned to his sword practice until he had quite recovered.
Selbar's determination to begin anew extended to more than just mastery of the blade. He was a changed man in other ways. Abandoning the mystical he turned to other ways to build a lasting legacy. He trained with his officers, which served him well in both wars with the Jin Empire [1] and still found time for the more peaceful business of the realm. A serious of great building projects were begun or completed during Selbar's reign including the completion of the glorious palace of Khotan with its golden throne, the founding of the nearby castle-town of Pishan and the steady progress on the Library of Lhasa.
Though the realm was at war with the Jin twice during Selbar's reign, and the Indian kingdom of Bihar and the usual parade of barbarian adventurers and zealots caused all too frequent nuisances the early decades of the Fifteenth Century was a time of prosperity for the Tibetan Empire. The system of viceroys had proven effective, so much so that another such title - Amdo - was created in the second half of Selbar's reign. With the exception of a foolish and easily defeated adventure by one of Selbar's cousin's to gain power in Guge by force the Tibetan nobility proved loyal and content.
The religious issue that had almost troubled Tibet for so long appeared to diminish during Selbar's reign. Though Selbar VII's war against Bari Suvrata had nothing to do with religion she had been a figurehead for the Tengrists of the Tibetan Empire. With her defeat and removal the fortunes of the Blue Sky faithful had waned and they never again wielded serious power. Selbar VIII followed the traditions of his family in being a practicing Christian while also being tolerant of pagans and 'Eastern' religions. On the one hand the Tsenpo was happy to give a sky burial to his father. On the other hand he invoked the Cross while at war with the Taoists of the Jin Empire. Much of this - very Tibetan - mixture of easy tolerance and pragmatism mixed with sincere piety reflected a certain self confidence. Christianity in Tibet was entering a golden age of art, culture and theology. By the end of Selbar's reign more than a quarter of Tibetans were Nestorians with the Western territories of Kashmir being a particular stronghold. These Christians tended to be more orthodox in belief than traditional Tibetan Christians, with many descended from converts from Islam and thus more used to simple monotheism. Though this definitely added spice to the theological debate among the Tibetan clergy there was still a general feeling of 'live and let live', buoyed by national prosperity.
Selbar's tolerant religious approach could be seen in his marriages. His first wife was a Muslim Karluk, Ötüken a sharp witted and strong willed nomadic princess who proved herself a canny general. After her death in battle in 1430 he married again to the Jewish Khazar royal Tura, a woman much admired for both her kindness and her cunning. Though the second marriage proved barren the first had produced two children and eventually a complicated inheritance.
From an early age Princess Kelzang was the centre of her father's universe.
Princess Kelzang was born in 1399 and for many years it was supposed she would be Selbar's sole heir as over decade passed before Tsenmo Ötüken fell with child again. The young princess was clever and healthy and to the vast relief off all the family curse of a curved spine seemed to have missed her by entirely. The Tsenpo, who had a sentimental streak treasured his 'lone perfect pearl' and the heiresss presumptive grew up wanting for nothing from the best of tutors to rare clothes from China to exotic delicacies for every meal. The glorious Gardens of Taktsé had long housed a menagerie for the curiosity of the Imperial Family and Selbar gifted the young princess with a brace of trained hunting cheetah from Persia.
In 1411 the Tsenmo Ötüken fell pregnant. So long had passed since the last time that the palace of Khotan, where the Imperial Family was resident at the time, had no midwives in the empresses staff and the major domo of the palace had to send word to the city to find a woman skilled in the arts of caring for a mother to be. Late that year she gave birth to a son, Prince Thrikhyiding who per the law leapfrogged his twelve year old sister in the succession.
No one in Tibet at the time of the Crown Prince's birth could have foreseen that Selbar would live for almost four more decades. The fear at the time was that Thrikhyiding might inherit the throne while still a child. The obvious regent - once she herself came of age - would have been Princess Kelzang. Unfortunately there were already signs that the Princess would grow up to be a careless and spendthrift young woman. Though she had many fine qualities including a talent for military matters and a sense of justice and kindness from her father Kelzang was hopeless with money, not much better with diplomacy and easily bored with administration. Aware from birth that she was intelligent she had never bothered to improve her mind and endlessly spoiled by her father she was infamously proud. In her later years her taste for the luxuries of life would lead her to gluttony and drunkeness.
Crown Prince Thrikhyiding as Viceroy of Amdo, 1432 AD.
Selbar was largely blind to his beloved daughter's flaws but perhaps out of a sense of time passing was harder on the young Crown Prince. Thrikhyiding was urged to excel in all things, even to the point of encouraging ambition and rivalry with his father. There was no deliberate policy of 'toughening up' the boy, and his education was more scholastic than soldierly to account for the changing status of Tibet. It was more that Selbar was unable to hide his own partiality towards his elder child while Thrikhyiding was all too aware of her flaws. The Tsenpo, awkwardly aware of the need to train his heir and of the rift in the Imperial Family (even if he was willfully blind to the cause) appointed the Crown Prince the Custodian of the Golden Palace of Kotan and Viceroy of Amdo in 1432. By any measure these were generous honours but to Thrikhyiding they spoke only of a desire to hustle him away from Lhasa and a father who seemed at a loss dealing with him.
Thrikhyiding found his feet in Amdo, where he married a Bön noblewoman and in time sired a son, inevitably another Selbar. Relations between Lhasa and the Crown Prince's capital of Jiuquan remained cool at best. Still nothing could prepare the Tibetan court for the premature death of the Crown Prince in 1436. The tale delivered by a messenger who'd ridden four horses to their deaths to reach Lhasa as fast as possible was a pathetic one. The Crown Prince had been out riding with some of his boon companions when his horse, a handsome beast of rich colour and dark temper was panicked by a snake underhoof. Thrikhyiding was thrown from his saddle and dashed his head against the rocks. It was over so swiftly that the Crown Prince's escort where still trying to hide their smiles at their master's misfortune when it dawned on them he was gone.
Crown Prince Thrikhyiding was twenty four when he died and left behind an infant son who became the new heir. The accident that had robbed the aging Selbar of his son struck the Tsenpo hard but it sent a shock through the Tibetan elite from more than just grief. With Selbar living into his seventies and his grandson a child a regency was looking very likely - and that meant Kelzang might rule after all...
Footnotes:
[1] Of which we shall hear more in the following chapter.
