Dalai Lama Biography
Fast Facts
Birth name: Lhamo Dhondrup
Born on July 6th, 1935 in Takster, Tibet
He is the 4th son of a peasant family and was 2 years old when he was recognized as the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama.
His enthronement ceremony as Dalai Lama took place on February 22, 1940 in Lhasa ( the capital of Tibet )
He was renamed Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso - Holy Lord, Gentle Glory, Compassionate, Defender of the Faith, Ocean of Wisdom. Tibetans normally refer to His Holiness as Yeshe Norbu, the Wishfulfilling Gem or simply Kundun - The Presence.
Fourteenth in a line of spiritual and temporal leaders of Tibet
Considered to be the incarnation of the Buddha of Compassion who chooses to serve humanity.
Has traveled to some 46 countries bringing his message of peace, compassion and personal responsibility.
In 1989 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his ongoing commitment to the peaceful liberation of his Tibet.
Dalai Lama is translated as "Ocean of Wisdom"
Dalai Lama Biography
"Sleep is the best meditation" Dalai Lama
The Dalai Lama is an extraordinary spiritual and temporal leader of the Tibetan people. He was born Lhamo Dhondrup and was the fourth son of a peasant family in a village called Takster in northeastern Tibet.
He is the 14th Dalai Lama to lead in Tibet and was recognized as such when he was only two years old. Members of the Tibetan government tested him and he was able to identify and point out things that had belonged to his predecessor, the 13th Dalai Lama.
The Dalai Lama is considered to be an incarnation of the Buddha of Compassion who keeps returning to the earth to serve humanity. When a Dalai Lama dies, his spirit is reincarnated in an infant and the leadership is maintained in this way.
He was trained as a Buddhist monk from the time he was six years old and follows the life of a simple monk to this day. He rises at four in the morning in his small cottage to meditate, then has administrative meetings to attend, religious teachings and ceremonies follow and then prayers before retiring for the night. He has remarked often, "I am just a simple Buddhist monk - no more, nor less."
Even so, in 1950 he was called upon to fulfill a political leadership role full of overwhelming responsibilities at the tender age of sixteen when the Chinese were moving to take control of Tibet. As head of state with full political authority he successfully negotiated an autonomy agreement with the Communist Chinese government in 1951 and served as nominal ruler of Tibet until 1959. It was at this time when the Chinese army moved in and crushed all resistance to their government's occupation of Tibet and took control of this small country.
The Dalai Lama settled at Dharamsala in Punjab, India, along with 160,000 fellow Tibetans where he worked to establish a democratically-based government and to protect and maintain the culture of his people. With the help of the Indian government he set up schools for his people that taught English, Hindi, a western-style education and Tibetan culture and language. Then came handicraft factories, monasteries, orphanages and cultural institutions all of which helped found a new Tibetan society in their new home. There are currently 53 settlements in India.
The Dalai Lama at first had difficulty garnering support from the international community for his cause of liberating his homeland...people just weren't responding to his pleas. He appealed to the United Nations and eventually three resolutions were passed that condemned the "violations of the fundamental human rights of the Tibetan people. Now many countries have added their voices in support of Tibet and criticized the repressive occupation of Tibet by China.
In the last decade the Dalai Lama has traveled extensively at the invitation of various governments and groups. His mission and message is always the same: Free Tibet and create a peaceful and loving society world-wide. He is constant in his vision of a world that utilizes compassion and kindness as the means to solve human conflict.
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Resources: the official Office of Tibet in London and Ven. Sonam Chokyi who has a webpage on Peacemakers.org.
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Dalai Lama: The Soul of Tibet DVD
A&E's Dalai Lama Biography
From a childhood in "Shangri-La" to a life in exile, BIOGRAPHY presents the journey of His Holiness, the Dalai Lama.