But the Tibetans would not accept the rule of Yeses and in 1717 the revolutionary party conspired with the Oelot tribes of Ili to put Kalzang on the throne by force.  The troops sent to take the holy child were defeated by the Chinese but those which attacked Lhasa were completely successful.  Yeses abdicated and the city passed into the possession of the Mongols.  The Chinese Government were greatly alarmed and determined to subdue Tibet.  Their first expedition was a failure but in 1720 they sent a second and larger, and also decided to install the youthful Kalzang as Grand Lama, thus conciliating the religious feelings of the Tibetans.  The expedition met with little difficulty and the result of it was that China became suzerain of the whole country.  By imperial edict the young Grand Lama was recognized as temporal ruler, the four ministers or Kalon were given Chinese titles, and garrisons were posted to keep open the road from China.  But the Tibetans were still discontented.  In 1727 a rebellion, instigated it was said by the family of the Grand Lama, broke out, and the Prime Minister was killed.  This rising was not permanently successful and the Chinese removed the Grand Lama to the neighbourhood of their frontier.  They felt however that it was unsafe to give ground for suspicion that they were ill-treating him and in 1734 he was reinstated in the Potala.  But the dislike of the Tibetans for Chinese supervision was plain.  In 1747 there was another rebellion.  The population of Lhasa rose and were assisted by Oelot troops who suddenly arrived on the scene.  Chinese rule was saved only by the heroism of the two Chinese Agents, who invited the chief conspirators to a meeting and engaged them in personal combat.  They lost their own lives but killed the principal rebels.  The Chinese then abolished the office of Prime Minister, increased their garrison and gave the Agents larger powers.

About 1758 the Grand Lama died and was succeeded by an infant called Jambal.  The real authority was wielded by the Panchen Lama who acted as regent and was so influential that the Emperor Ch’ien-Lung insisted on his visiting Peking.[967] He had a good reception and probably obtained some promise that the government of Tibet would be left more in the hands of the Church but he died of smallpox in Peking and nothing came of his visit except a beautiful tomb and an epitaph written by the Emperor.  After his death a new complication appeared.  The prelates of the Red Church encouraged an invasion of the Gurkhas of Nepal in the hope of crushing the Yellow Church.  The upshot was that the Chinese drove out the Gurkhas but determined to establish a more direct control.  The powers of the Agents were greatly increased and not even the Grand Lama was allowed the right of memorializing the throne, but had to report to the Agents and ask their orders.