White crane, lend me your wings!

Jade thrungthrung karmo (White crane)
Shogtsel ngala 'yar dang (Lend me your wings)
Thagring jangla midro (I will not go far)
Lithang kor ne lebyong. (From Lithang, I will return)

So wrote a lonely Tshangyang Gyatsho, the sixth Dalai Lama to a lady friend in Shol (a town in Tibet) as he was being led by Lhazang Khan and his troops just before his mysterious disappearance in 1706. He was only 24.
His rebellious life, non-conformity to established social norms and love for creative expression always intrigued me to read about his life and his love songs. Let me briefly share some interesting aspects of his short and chaotic life.
His predecessor, Ngawang Lobsang Gyatsho, known as 'The Great Fifth', was the first Dalai Lama to gain full spiritual and temporal control over all of Tibet. When he died in 1682 aged 65, the construction of the giant Potala which he had initiated was still incomplete and the Mongols and Manchus waited for opportunities to destabilize Tibet. Therefore, his regent Desi Sangay Gyatsho kept his death a closely guarded secret.
But the Desi did not fail to secretly send out the customary search parties for the new reincarnation, and in about two years found Tshangyang who fulfilled all the qualities of a reincarnate Dalai Lama. However, he kept the little boy in hiding, first at his birthplace, and later at Tsona and Nakartse.
It was only in 1697, 15 years after the death of the fifth Dalai Lama, that his death as well as the discovery of the sixth reincarnation was announced.
By that time, Tshangyang was already 14 years old. The second Panchhen Lama, Lobzang Yeshe named him Lobzang Rigdzin Tshangyang Gyatsho which means 'Precious Ocean of Pure Melody' and was taken to the Potala Palace in Lhasa. This name suited him very well as he was to write many songs later.
One of the first interesting things about Tshangyang is that he was the only Dalai Lama other than the fourth Dalai Lama Yonten Gyatsho who was a Mongolian, to be born outside of proper Tibet. Tshangyang was born in 1683 in Mon Tawang (now part of Arunachal Pradesh, India) to Lama Tashi Tenzin of Urgeling, a descendant of the Terton Pema Lingpa and Tsewang Lhamo, a Monpa girl from the royal lineage of Bekhar.
Besides many other legends surrounding his birth, it is said that when Tsewang Lhamo drank water at a nearby stream before his birth, milk started gushing out in place of water. This stream was since then known as Oma-Tsikang, meaning milky water.
Soon an entourage of Lamas looking for the reincarnation showed up at their house. When his mother called the little boy, he stood up from where he was playing and wrote 'Lama Khenno' on a rock with his finger. It is said that this writing on the rock remains there to this day.
When Tshangyang, aged fourteen, left Tawang for Lhasa, he planted three sandalwood trees and prophesied that when the trees grew similar in height and appearance he would return.
At the Potala, Tshangyang turned out to be an unconventional Dalai Lama. He engaged in all activities without reserve and refused to become a fully ordained monk. Instead, he even returned his novice vows to the Panchen Lama. He even refused to keep servants choosing to serve tea to his friends himself, and also refused to ride horses or sit on palanquin and preferred to walk.
Growing up to be a tall handsome young man, Tshangyang was a true lover of wine, women and songs. It is said that during the day he practiced archery with his friends and at night, he sneaked away from the palace and made merry in the taverns of Lhasa and Shol with his girlfriends often spending his nights there. His non-conformist behavior drew a lot of chaos, confusion and worries for himself as well the ruling class. His songs reflect this.
Mitsho ngala labpa (People gossip about me)
Gongsu dagpa khagtheg (I am sorry for what I have done)
Oloi gomsum thramo (I have taken three thin steps)
Nemoi nangla thelsong (And landed myself in the tavern of my lady.)

Pota laru zhugdi (When residing in the Potala)
Rigzin Tshangyang Gyatsho (I'm Rigdzin Tsangyang Gyatsho)
Lhasa zholdu doddi (When I'm hanging out in Lhasa and Shol)
Chhelpo Dangzang Wangpo (I'm lover Dangzang Wangpo.)

But indeed he was not an ordinary person. It is said that even when everyone in the bar would be drunk the Dalai Lama's mind was always crystal clear. Even the most qualified Buddhist masters of the time could only conclude that he was a living bodhisattva based on special marks on his body amongst other signs.
He wrote some of the finest poems and love songs in Tibetan. They are simple and spontaneous expression of a young man's experience and longing to be what he was. Today, his songs not only have woodprint versions and handwritten copies, but also translated versions in English, French, Russian, Japanese, Indian, Mongol, etc.
Some of his songs reflect that he was constantly aware of his fragility and imminent death.

Datai tshethung dila (In the short walk of this life)
Dekha tsamzhig zhune (We have had our share of joy.)
Tingma jipai lola (In the youth of our next life)
Jelzom ayong tawo (Let us hope to meet again.)

Thus he wrote and sang.

Later, his songs inspired many other Tibetan writers and lyricists. I find that Drungtsho Sherab Jorden's booklet of 'Tsangmo' published in Bhutan also have a lot of influence from the sixth Dalai Lama's love songs.
Meanwhile, the power struggles between Desi Sangay Gyatsho and the Mongol Qosot leader Lhazang Khan cast an uncertainty over the Potala. Desi Sngay Gyatso had maintained the alliance with the Dzungar Mongols who were hostile to the Manchu. But the Manchu emperor, Kang Hsi, had forged an alliance with Lhazang Khan. In a battle that ensued, Lhazang Khan defeated the Desi and killed him, leaving the Dalai Lama unprotected.
On June 11, 1706, Lhazang Khan removed the Dalai Lama from the Potala and declared him deposed. When Lhazang Khan's troops tried to take him to Beijing, the Dalai Lama's supporters took him to Drepung Monastery. There, when the Dalai Lama heard that a massacre of people blocking the monastery's entrance was about to take place in the hands of Lhazang Khan's troops, he walked out and gave himself up. In a very compassionate act, he refused to let anyone die in his place.
Tsangyang Gyatso was carried off toward China. However, at Gunga-nor, a small lake to the south of Kokonor, on November 14, 1706, at the age of 24, the Sixth Dalai Lama vanished. While it is most likely that he was murdered, rumors abound as to whether he died due to illness or escaped and continued to wander about Tibet for many years thereafter.

Nobody understood what he meant when he sang "From Lithang I will return" until the next reincarnation of the Dalai Lama, Kelzang Gyatsho was born in Lithang. It was customary for the Dalai Lamas to leave a coded message about the next reincarnation before their death, and Tshangyang Gyatsho, the ocean of pure melody, had left it in the form of a song, true to his name.
Reliable articles and sources on the Internet claim that in 1959, over 260 years later, the three trees that he planted in Tawang resembled each other but they showed an ominous sign when they mysteriously burned down. Soon after, the present Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso came to Tawang, but it was as a refugee fleeing Tibet.
The following song clearly expresses the sense of injustice he felt at the hands of the ruling class and the war-like Mongol factions.

Shidi nyelwai yulgi (Residing in the realm of death )
Chogyal leki melong (Yama, the mirror of my karma )
Dina thrigthrig midug (Here in life, there is no justice)
Dene thrigthrig nangzhu (In death, please judge and grant it.)