Ngawang Namgyal (later granted the honorific Zhabdrung Rinpoche, approximately "at whose feet one submits") (; alternate spellings include Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyel; 1594–1651) and known colloquially as The Bearded Lama, was a Tibetan Buddhist lama and the unifier of Bhutan as a nation-state. In addition to unifying the various warring fiefdoms for the first time in the 1630s, he also sought to create a distinct Bhutanese cultural identity separate from the Tibetan culture from which it was derived. Birth and enthronement at Ralung Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal was born at Ralung () Monastery, Tibet as the son of the Drukpa lineage-holder Mipham Tenpa'i Nyima (, 1567–1619), and Sönam Pelgyi Butri (), daughter of the ruler of Kyishö () in Tibet. On his father's side, Ngawang Namgyal descended from the family line of Tsangpa Gyare (1161–1211), the founder of the Drukpa Lineage. In his youth, Ngawang Namgyal was enthroned as the eighteenth Drukpa or throne-holder and "hereditary prince" of the traditional Drukpa seat and estate of Ralung, and recognized there as the immediate reincarnation of the fourth Drukchen, the "Omniscient" Kunkhyen Pema Karpo (, 1527–1592). His recognition and enthronement at Ralung as the Drukpa incarnation was, however, opposed by Lhatsewa Ngawang Zangpo, an influential follower of Drukpa Pema Karpo who promoted the recognition of a rival candidate—Gyalwang Pagsam Wangpo, an illegitimate son of the Chongje Depa, Ngawang Sönam Dragpa—as the Gyalwang Drukpa incarnation. Lhatsewa and supporters of the Chongje Depa conducted an enthronement ceremony of Pagsam Wangpo as the incarnation of Künkhyen Pema Karpo and Gyalwang Drukpa at Tashi Thongmen monastery. The Chongje Depa then persuaded the Tsang Desi (or Depa Tsangpa), the most powerful ruler in Tibet and patron of the rival Karma Kagyu sect, to support the recognition of Pagsam Wangpo as Gyalwang Drukpa and incarnation of Künkhyen Pema Karpo. By 1612, the Tsang Desi, Karma Phuntsok Namgyal (), had gained control over all of Ü-Tsang. For a time, Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal continued to live at the main Drukpa seat of Ralung, as—irrespective of who was entitled to be considered as the true incarnation of Kunkhyen Pema Karpo—Ngawang Namgyal was the main Drukpa hereditary lineage–holder and legitimate throne-holder at Ralung Monastery, the traditional seat of the Drukpa Lineage. From Tibet to Bhutan However, following a misunderstanding Zhabdrung Rinpoche and his party had with an important Karma Kagyu lama, Pawo Tsugla Gyatsho (1568–1630), the Tsang Desi demanded that compensation be paid, and