Antonio Terrone recently completed a most interesting PhD thesis on the current status of the gö kar chang lo’i dé (gos dkar lcang lo’i sde—ngakpas) in Kham and Golok (eastern parts of the culturally-Tibetan region).| Vividness
There is one dimension to that you touch on but I think needs a little further elaboration: Lamas in the west were actually far more powerful than they ever were in Tibet, at least within the bubble of their own little organizations. In Tibet, even lamas with a lot of political power were subject to all sorts of constraints, checks and balances. Although many people might have regarded them as gods, there were always other Tibetans willing to torture and kill them if they crossed the wrong bo...| vividness.live