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British Agent Gould, meanwhile, had concentrated his attention on the man who will actually rule Tibet until the new Dalai Lama reaches 18 (if he reaches it—Dalai Lamas often die of aconite in their buttered tea). Tibet's Regent, shy, ugly, runty, jug-eared Thup Ten Jampel Yishey Gyantsen, lives in one of Lhasa's best palaces, raises European flowers in his garden. To him, Agent Gould gave many presents from India's Viceroy Lord Linlithgow—a silver tea service, rifles, revolvers, a gramophone, a thermos flask, a signed photograph. Likewise, Agent Gould and his staff were on hand when the small 14th incarnation (or "Embodiment") made his ceremonial "return" to Lhasa. The boy surveyed the Britishers calmly, according to reports seemed to be trying to recall whether he had seen them before somewhere in his previous life.
Variously called Lama Tanchu, or Lama Dhondup, or Ehrlingh ("Divine Child"), the new Dalai Lama last fortnight took his official name: Jampel Ngag-Wang Lobsang Yishey Tenzing Gyamtso, deriving from the names of earlier Dalai Lamas and meaning "Tender Glory, Mighty in Speech, Excellent Intellect, Absolute Wisdom, Holding to the Doctrine, Ocean-Wide." To most Tibetans he will be known, like his predecessors, as Gyamtso Rimpoche ("Glorious King"). So glorious is he supposed to be, in fact, that the monks of his palace-fortress, the Potala, will do a thriving business selling barley pills containing his excreta—a specific for all ills.
"The Kokonor Kid" has already been put to learning the mantras and tantras—Buddhist charms, incantations and prayers—which will fill his days as long as he lives. This week in the Potala, lavish with gold and lacquer and stinking with yak-butter lamps, the Embodiment will kneel, facing east, in a big hall where envoys of foreign powers will bring him gifts. When messages from them have been read aloud, he will make three genuflections and nine prostrations in gratitude for celestial favors. The Regent will clothe the Dalai Lama in garments worn by his predecessor. Enthroned, the boy will receive homage from the high lamas. After that, everyone will banquet. The Dalai Lama will undoubtedly exhibit great dignity during these ceremonies. As child lamas usually do, for some reason, he impressed everyone with his intelligence and composure when he first entered Lhasa.
— Where he was first photographed with a white man, the Rev. F. D. Learner of the China Inland Mission {see cut, p. 54).