Dalai Lama

The Dalai Lama is the spiritual and temporal leader of the Tibetan Buddhist peoples, by whom he is regarded as the earthly manifestation of Chenrezi, the bodhisattva ("incarnating deity") of compassion. Each Dalai Lama is regarded as being the reincarnation of his predecessor, and after the death of a Dalai Lama, a search is made for the young boy in whom he is considered to have taken rebirth. Tenzin Gyatso (b. 1935), the present Dalai Lama, is the fourteenth in a line of succession originating in a fourteenth-century disciple of the founder of the Gelugpa sect, the leading school of Tibetan Buddhism.

Commonly referred to in English by the title "His Holiness," the fourteenth Dalai Lama was born into a peasant family in the village of Takster, in the northeastern Amdo Province of Tibet (now part of China's Qinghai Province). His predecessor had "passed to the heavenly fields" in 1933, and Tenzin Gyatso was recognized as his reincarnation in 1937. He was taken to Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, in 1939 and was enthroned in the Potala Palace in February 1940. While a regent ruled Tibet in his name, he began the lengthy course of studies that culminated in his being awarded the Lharampa Geshe degree (roughly equivalent to a doctorate in Buddhist studies) in 1959.

Due to the crisis caused by the Communist Chinese invasion of Tibet in October 1950, the sixteen-year-old Tenzin Gyatso assumed temporal power in Tibet on 17 November 1950. He remained there under Chinese authority until the excesses of the Communist regime prompted him to flee Lhasa in March 1959. Although closely pursued by Chinese forces, he succeeded in reaching India. There, with around one hundred thousand of his followers, the Dalai Lama established a Tibetan government-in-exile in Dharamsala, in the Himalayan foothills of north India. He has since become the primary ambassador of the Tibetan cause as well as a world-renowned spokesman for nonviolence and for the Buddhist ideal of "universal compassion." In October 1989 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

The fourteenth Dalai Lama remains the focus of Tibetan identity in the world. A charming and modest, yet charismatic figure, with a great appeal in the West, he prefers to be known as "a simple Buddhist monk." His leadership has been characterized by an openness to change, the promotion of dialogue between religions and science, and a steadfast belief in the principles of nonviolence.

The Dalai Lama at a news conference in New Delhi, India, in May 1999 at which he announced a series of concerts entitled the "World Festival of Sacred Music." (AFP/CORBIS)

Alex McKay

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