At the time when the Tibetans were ruled by twelve petty cheiftans, there was much discontent and fighting as they had no overall leader and were a country divided. It was during this period that the king of Vatsa in India had a son. The son was no normal child, for he was born with turquoise eyebrows, overhanging eyelids, and his fingers were connected by webs. The king was most distressed and all the court was frightened by this strange child. The king wanted to be rid of the boy, so he ordered him to be placed in a lead box and thrown into the river Ganges. When this task was completed the king and queen, together with the inhabitants of the palace, breathed a sigh of relief that they were now rid of the embarassing freak of nature.
The boy, however, did not die, he was found by a peasant, who on opening the box and finding the strange child inside was filled with much love for him, and took him home to live as one of his family. So the boy spent a happy childhood, loved and cared for by the peasant and his wife.
When he was reaching adulthood the peasant thought it was time the boy knew about his strange beginnings, and so he related the story about how he was found in a lead box by the river Ganges. So that the boy would not feel that he had been abandoned the peasant tried to convince him that he was a very special person, in truth a "mighty one" of high birth. The boy, however, was saddened when he heard the peasant's story, for he had always believed that he was a part of the peasant's family and looked upon the man as his father. In grief the boy fled to the Himalayas and crossed the border of Tibet, wanting to spend his days alone in the shelter of the mountains.
There he came across some Tibetan priests of the ancient order, who upon seeing this strange young man declared him a god, for when they asked him who he was the boy answered that he was a "mighty one", and when asked from whence he had come the boy pointed to India across the mountains, but the priests thought he was pointing to the heavens.
Because of the language barrier they gave up efforts to communicate and the boy was placed on a wooden chair which was set on the shoulders of four men. The priests declare, "We shall make him our lord", and so he was known as "the neck chair mighty one" and was the first king of all Tibet.
