It was not until 1780, when the sixth Panchen travelled to Chengde to offer birthday greetings to the Qianlong Emperor and reported on the matter, that the emperor accepted the appeals from the Panchen and other Tibetan Buddhist leaders to officially recognize Jampel Gyatso as the eighth Dalai Lama. In 1781, when the Qianlong Emperor formally conferred the title of the eighth Dalai Lama, he simultaneously affirmed Kelsang Gyatso as the seventh Dalai Lama and Tsangyang Gyatso as the sixth. This marked a direct clarification and ordering of the Dalai Lama reincarnation lineage from the perspective of the central government, highlighting the central government’s authority in managing the issue of the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation.
SANGHA KOMMUNE (SSR) 