BUDDHISM IN THE TIBETAN CULTURAL AREA 289The Thirteenth (187 4-1933) survived the perils of childhood in the Potala
only to become enmeshed in international politics, as the British and Chinese
both invaded Lhasa during his reign. Seeing the long-term threat to his coun-
try if it did not modernize, he strengthened the civilian branch of the govern-
ment service, raised a standing army, and instituted a number of other
modernizing reforms that-after initial resistance-gradually became very
popular. Toward the end of his life, however, he could see that his reforms
were too little too late; his death was accompanied by bad omens that left the
populace dispirited. The Fourteenth Dalai Lama (b. 1935), enthroned in 1950
just before the Chinese Communists invaded Tibet, was forced to flee the
country in 1959 as the Chinese set about systematically destroying all vestiges
of Tibetan culture. Realizing that the only hope for the survival of Tibetan
Buddhism lies in the development of an international base of support, he has
adopted the role of international spokesman for Buddhism as a whole, work-
ing tirelessly to provide for Tibetan refugees scattered throughout the world,
and to reunite lamas, now becoming teachers to the world at large, from the
various schools of Tibetan Buddhism.
This survey of the political fortunes of the Dalai Lamas over the past four
centuries has bypassed the religious developments of the period largely be-
cause, as we noted previously, the Gelug educational system tended to pre-
clude innovation, and the political responsibilities borne by the Gelugs tended
to distract them from the purely religious life. Thus, most of the religious in-
novations of this period occurred outside of their school.
The primary religious development of this period was the growth of the
Nyingma eclectic school of thought, and its permeation into the other non-
Gelug orders. The Nyingma monastic order grew considerably as a result of
the Fifth Dalai Lama's support in the seventeenth century, and the school pro-
duced one of its greatest thinkers and meditation masters in the following cen-
tury, Jigme Lingpa ('Jigs-med gLing-pa; circa 1730-98). Jigme Lingpa,
reportedly as a result of mind-to-mind transmission from Longch'en Rabjam
(see Section 11.3.3), streamlined and ritualized the latter's guides to Dzogchen
with an eye to making them more easily accessible, forming the basis for all
Dzogchen practice ever since. He taught that individually interpreted self-dis-
cipline was more important than monastic discipline in the pursuit of the Path,
and that the ultimate truth could not be captured or even approached by any
verbal formulation.
These points formed the rallying point for the Ri-med (Ris-med, Unre-
stricted) movement that began sweeping through the non-Gelug orders in
eastern Tibet in the middle of the nineteenth century. This movement was
unrestricted in three ways: It drew on the traditions of all the monastic and
Tantric lineages, regardless of affiliation; it offered to the general public initia-
tions that had been kept as closely guarded secrets for many centuries; and it
devalued the monastic disciplinary rules, in particular the rules concerning
celibacy. Although the Ri-meds drew their leaders from the Sakyas, Kagyiis,
Nyingmas, and even the Bons, the movement was primarily a triumph of the
old Nyingma eclecticism, in that it emphasized Dzogchen as an element in all