The Treasury of Lives

Nyima Gyeltsen (nyi ma rgyal mtshan) was born to the Pomdatsang (spom mda' tshang), a family of traders, in a Sakya area of Chamdo (chab mdo) called Dzawa Pomda (rdza ba spom mda'). Dzawa Pomda was also called Dzawa Gang (rdza ba sgang) or Dzawa Pasho Dzong (rdza ba dpa' shod rdzong). Given that his eldest son was born in 1883, he was born at least before the year 1870. His mother, Tendzin Zangmo (bstan 'dzin bzang mo), was a daughter of the Sakya Khon ('khon) family. This connection to the Sakya, one of the most powerful families in Tibet, was an important part of the ascent of the Pangdatsang.

With a network of monasteries throughout Tibet, the Sakyas maintained a degree of political autonomy in eleven different areas of Tibet up until the 1950s, including the territories of Damtok (dam rtogs) and Markham (rmar khams) in eastern Tibet. The Sakya post in Markham was one of the eighteen hereditary chieftain (dpon) posts called the Gyakek Pon (rgya skeg dpon). Nyima Gyeltsen’s father's marriage secured for him the Sakya post in Markham, an important district south of Chamdo. The district included the nomad area of Jindok and the mixed farming-nomadic area of Gushod, as well as Gyakek Monastery (rgya skeg dgon) and village. The Pomdatsang family now ruled the area called Pangda (spang mda'), one which paid taxes to Sakya but from which the Lhasa government could levy work or collect a separate tax. They took its name for themselves, changing the family name from Pomdatsang to Pangdatsang. Because the name change was relatively recent, both Pomda (spom mda') and Pangda (spang mda') are still used to refer to the family although the family themselves prefer Pangda.

The new position in Markham provided the financial means for expansion of the family trading business. Around the turn of the twentieth century, Nyigyel Pangdatsang moved to Lhasa in search of new business opportunities. Pangdatsang family lore tells of how Nyigyel succeeded in the Tibetan capital with a clever plan. He borrowed large sums of money and made generous donations to the three monasteries of Sera (se ra), Drepung (sbras sprung) and Ganden (dga ldan). Word spread about Nyigyel's generosity and the monastic officials assumed that Nyigyel Pangdatsang must be a very rich Khampa trader. In those days the monasteries, not wanting to keep large amounts of money on their grounds, stored money at the homes of their trusted sponsors. Nyigyel Pangdatsang, having shown himself to be a valuable sponsor, was now asked to store their money; he agreed and used this money as the capital with which to build his expanding business.

Nyigyel became extraordinarily successful in Lhasa. On May 26, 1909, when the Tibetan government granted the sole right to purchase wool and yak tails to three traders, the Pangdatsang family was one of the families chosen along with the Kumsang (kun bzang/ kun bzang rtse) family of Lhasa and the Jimpa (bying pa) of Chema (bye ma). If Jimpa declined the Garusha (bya ru sha) from Lhasa took the position. The trading powers of the Pangdatsang firm began to grow, and in 1911 Nyigyel provided the Thirteenth Dalai Lama, Tubten Gyatso (ta la'i bla ma 13 thub bstan rgya mtsho, 1876-1933) with service for which he was later amply rewarded.

The Qing had long tried to strengthen their presence in Tibet and sent Manchu general Zhao Erfeng (趙爾豊, 1845-1911) to Kham. In February 1910, Zhao's army now arrived in Lhasa and quickly crushed the Tibetan resistance, prompting  the Thirteenth Dalai Lama to flee from Lhasa to the Tibetan border with India. It was Nyigyel who provided free transport for all the Dalai Lama's goods to and from Lhasa as well as a company of bodyguards. When the Qing collapsed and the Dalai Lama returned to Lhasa in 1912, he made Nyigyel Pangdatsang the Tibetan Government’s trade agent (a more minor post than it would later grow to be), providing him with invaluable trade concessions.

As the trade agent, Pangdatsang bought wool at half the regular price from the sellers and paid only half the transportation costs. Nyigyel became a favorite (spyan gsal) of the Dalai Lama, which meant that he enjoyed access to the Dalai Lama and special privileges in the political, social and economic realms as well. The government continued to give monopolies over the wool trade, the chief domestic product of Tibet, to the Pangdatsangs. By 1920, Nyigyel Pangdatsang had become the leading Tibetan trader with branches in Calcutta, Shanghai and Peking. Along with the Pangdatsangs, the Sadhutsang (sa 'du tshang) family from Kandze (dkar mdzes) and the estate of the Fifth Reting Rinpoche, Tubten Jampel Yeshe Tenpai Gyeltsen (rwa sgreng 05 thub bstan 'jam dpal ye shes bstan pa'i rgyal mtshan) made up the three largest trading firms in Tibet at the time; they were referred to as the re spom sa gsum – the Reting-Pangda-Sadhu triumvirate.”

Nyigyel Pangdatsang had four sons: Nyima (nyi ma, 1883-1940s), Lobzang Yampel (blo bzang yar 'phel, c.1900-1972/3), Rapga Tendzin Lhundrub (rab dga' bstan 'dzin lhun 'grub, 1902-1976) and Tobgyal (stobs rgyal, 1904-1972/3). Nyigyel's wife was Nyi Karma (nyi kar ma) of the Drongmetsang (grong smad tshang) family from Markham (rmar khams) – his eldest son was born to a relative of his wife whose name is not known. Apart from the four sons, the Pangdatsang family also included at least one daughter whose name was Chime ('chi med).

In the second decade of the twentieth century the Pangdatsang family merged with the Jangling family (byang gling), a trading family based in Lhasa. Yampel and Tobgyal were married to two Jangling daughters, Sonam (bsod nams) and Tsedon (tse sgron). To unite the family more closely, Yampel and Tobgyal married each other's wives and the two families lived together as one. There was only one child born from the union of the two couples, a daughter named Pema Chokyi (pad ma chos kyi).

In 1921 Nyigyel Pangdatsang was shot and killed while at a picnic in Lhasa celebrating the Universal Smoke Offering Day that Tibetans call Zamling Chisang ('dzam gling spyi bsangs). His social rank was high enough that the case appears to have been a political rather than a legal affair, adjudicated by prison and government officials rather than through the court system. But the murder was never solved. A man named Khampa Aten (khams pa a brtan), associated with the Dzangtsatsang (mdzangs rtsa' tshangs) family of Litang (li thang), was arrested and tortured before being released for lack of evidence.

There were no newspapers in Lhasa in 1921, and any prison or governmental records that might have been kept are not currently accessible. As far as we know, only two individuals wrote about the assassination. The first was Drakshul Trinle Rinchen, the Thirty-ninth Sakya Trichen (sa skya khri chen 39 drag shul 'phrin las rin chen, 1871-1935) the head of the Sakya family and tradition, who wrote about the murder very briefly in a diary entry: "On the evening of the 16th, in Lhasa, the devoted sponsor Pangda Nyigyel was shot by a bad person while he was in a tent during Zamling Kyisang." The diaries were later published as his autobiography in 1974 by his chief disciple, Jampel Zangpo ('jam dpal bzang po), abbot of Sakya Monastery (sa skya dgon). The second was Alo Chonzed (a lo chos mdzad), a Khampa born and raised in Lhasa and a leader of the People's Assembly (mi mang tshong dus), the popular anti-Chinese Tibetan People's Organization in the 1950s, and author of The Key That Opens the Door of Truth to the Tibetan Situation: Materials on Modern Tibetan History, 1920-1982 (bod kyi gnas lugs bden 'dzin sgo phye ba'i lde mig zhes bya ba a lo chos mdzad kyi gdams, spyi lo 1920 nas 1982 bar), a hand-written and self-published history of Tibet that was banned by the Central Tibetan Administration for its controversial claims. In his book Alo Chonzed asserts that it was the Tibetan Commander General Tsarong Dazang Damdul (tsha rong zla bzang dgra 'dul, d. 1959) who sent his friend and deputy from the Tibetan army General Tsogo (mtsho sgo) to shoot Nyigyel Pangdatsang, whom Tsarong apparently saw as his rival. Alo Chonzed's conspiracy theory has never been proved.

The Dalai Lama, greatly sympathetic to the family after Nyigyel's assasination, gave Nyima Pangdatsang, the new head of the household, the title of Letsenpa (las tshan pa), of the sixth rank and inducted him into government service. The awarding of the rank, which carried hereditary status, to the Pangdatsang family marked the first time that a Tibetan family was admitted to aristocratic ranks for reasons other than the birth of a Dalai Lama.