Description
Once a protectorate of the Qing dynasty, now a semi-autonomous region of the People’s Republic of China, Tibet was an independent state from 1912 until its annexation by the PRC in 1951. That period coincided with the reign of the 13th Dalai Lama—the so-called ”Great Thirteenth“—who was a great force for modernization and reform. Tibet’s mountainous capital of Lhasa and its distinctive palace dates to the seventh century. The First Dalai Lama, the Buddhist spiritual leader, arrived in 1391. This copper sho, featuring a stylized snow lion on the obverse, was struck during the reign of the
Great Thirteenth.
