https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignaz_Trebitsch-Lincoln
What a story this guy has. Being a spy for multiple parties, finishing up as the claimant of being the Dalai Lamas reincarnation then dying under suspicious circumstances after writing Hitler to stop the holocaust.
The wiki page speaks for itself.
That system didn’t prevent most Dalai Lamas from being horrible rulers.
What did they do?
History of Tibet:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Tibet