Lhamo Thondup, the Dalai Lama, was born on July 6, 1935, in Taktser, China. He became the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s political leader, when he was 15 years old. That same year, the People’s Republic of China invaded. Fearing assassination, he and thousands of followers fled to the northern Indian town of Dharamshala, where they established an alternative government. Since then, the Dalai Lama has taken a number of steps in the hope of establishing a separate Tibetan state within the People’s Republic of China.
The Chinese government, on the other hand, has shown no signs of moving toward peace and reconciliation with Tibet. As part of his humanitarian efforts, the Dalai Lama has also held hundreds of conferences, lectures, and workshops around the world. In 1989, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Following gallstone surgery, the Dalai Lama announced his semi-retirement in December 2008.
Early Life
Lhamo Thondup was born on July 6, 1935, to a peasant family in Taktser, China, northeast of Tibet. He is the Tibetan government-in-head exile’s of state and spiritual leader, based in Dharamshala, India. Tibetans believe he is the reincarnation of his forefathers. He had worked for nearly 50 years to establish Tibet as a self-governing, democratic state.
Lhamo Thondup was the fifth of sixteen children, seven of whom died when they were young. After months of searching for a successor to the 13th Dalai Lama and observing numerous significant spiritual signs, religious officials identified Lhamo Thondup as the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso, at the age of two. Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, was given the name Tenzin Lhamo.
Dalai Lamas are thought to be the reincarnation of Avalokitesvara, a Buddhist deity who represents compassion. Dalai Lamas are also enlightened beings who have chosen to postpone their own afterlife in order to benefit humanity. In Mongolian, “Dalai” means “ocean” (the name “Gyatso” comes from the Tibetan word for ocean). “Lama” is the Sanskrit word for “guru,” or spiritual teacher. The title of Dalai Lama is literally “Ocean Teacher,” which means a “spiritual teacher as deep as the ocean.”
Buddhist Teachings
Buddhism was founded in the sixth century BCE with the birth of Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, making it one of the world’s oldest religions. The religion originated in India and spread throughout most of eastern and southern Asia. Buddhism arrived in Tibet in the eighth century CE. Unlike other religions that are centered on a supreme being, Buddhism is centered on four basic truths: life is not perfect; people are dissatisfied by trying to make life perfect; people can realize there is a better way to achieve fulfillment; and people can achieve enlightenment by living one’s life through wisdom, ethical conduct, and mental discipline.
There are countless layers of teachings on the nature of existence, life, death, and the self within these truths. Buddhism encourages its followers to explore, understand, and test the truths against their own experiences rather than believing in those teachings, as followers of other religions believe in their religion’s central figures and dogma. The emphasis is on exploration in this case. The Buddhist concept of rebirth is one of “renewal,” rather than reincarnation of a spirit or body.
As a flame moves from one candle to another in Buddhism, a person’s consciousness can become a part of the consciousness of another person. The second flame is neither identical nor completely different from the first. Thus, Buddhists believe that life is a continuous journey of experience and discovery, and that there is no distinction between life and the afterlife.
Becoming the Dalai Lama
Tenzin began his religious education when he was six years old. His education included logic, Tibetan art and culture, Sanskrit, medicine, and Buddhist philosophy, which is divided into five categories: monastic discipline, metaphysics, logic, and epistemology—the study of knowledge. Tenzin met Heinrich Harrer, an Austrian mountaineer, when he was 11, and he became one of his tutors, teaching him about the outside world. Harrer died in 2006, and the two remained friends.
Tenzin took full political power as the Dalai Lama in 1950, at the age of 15. His governorship, however, was brief. The People’s Republic of China invaded Tibet with little resistance in October of that year. The Dalai Lama visited Beijing in 1954 to hold peace talks with Mao Zedong and other Chinese leaders. However, continued Chinese troop suppression of the Tibetan people led to their uprising in 1959. The Dalai Lama and his closest advisers were convinced that the Chinese government was plotting his assassination. As a result, he and thousands of followers fled to Dharamshala in northern India, where they established an alternative government.
At the time, the People’s Republic of China saw the Dalai Lama as a symbol of an outmoded religious movement that was incompatible with communist philosophy. More recently, the Chinese government has accused him of being a separatist, a traitor, and a terrorist for advocating Tibetan self-rule.
Conflict with China
Since the Chinese invasion, the Dalai Lama has taken a number of steps in the hope of establishing a Tibetan state within the People’s Republic of China. He issued a draft constitution for Tibet in 1963, which included a number of reforms to democratize the government. The Tibetans in Exile Charter guarantees freedom of expression, belief, assembly, and movement. It also includes detailed instructions for Tibetans in exile.
During the 1960s, with the Dalai Lama’s full knowledge and support, the Central Intelligence Agency funded and trained Tibetan forces to resist Chinese invasion and occupation. The program was a failure, with thousands of lives lost in the resistance, and is now viewed as a Cold War tactic by the US to challenge the Chinese government’s legitimacy in the region.
The Dalai Lama proposed the Five Point Peace Plan for Tibet in September 1987 as the first step toward a peaceful solution to reconcile with the Chinese government and end the volatile situation there. The plan proposed that Tibet become a sanctuary for enlightened people to live in peace while the environment is preserved. The Dalai Lama addressed members of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, on June 15, 1988.
He proposed talks between the Chinese and Tibetans that would result in Tibet becoming a self-governing democratic political entity. The entity would be linked to the People’s Republic of China, with the Chinese government in charge of Tibet’s foreign policy and defense.
Because of the current Chinese leadership’s negative attitude toward the proposal, the Tibetan government-in-exile declared the Strasbourg Proposal invalid in 1991.
Humanitarian Work
The Dalai Lama is the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, and he has dedicated his life to serving humanity in the Bodhisattva tradition. He has written numerous books and given hundreds of conferences, lectures, and workshops at major universities and institutions around the world on topics such as wisdom, compassion, and, more recently, environmental sustainability. Unlike his predecessors, the Dalai Lama has met with many Western leaders and has traveled to the United States, Europe, Russia, Latin America, and many Asian countries.
The Dalai Lama is known for being an effective public speaker and is often described as charismatic. His message to people all over the world is always one of peace and compassion. During his international travels, he has emphasized the importance of better understanding and respect among the world’s various faiths. He has attended numerous interfaith services and met with religious leaders from around the world, including Pope John Paul II, Dr. Robert Runcie, Archbishop of Canterbury, Gordon B. Hinckley, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and Patriarch Alexius II of the Russian Orthodox Church.
The Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 for his nonviolent efforts to liberate Tibet and his concern for global environmental issues. According to the Committee’s citation, “The Committee wishes to emphasize that the Dalai Lama has consistently opposed the use of violence in his struggle for Tibet’s liberation. Instead, he has advocated for peaceful solutions based on tolerance and mutual respect in order to preserve his people’s historical and cultural heritage.”
In recent years, the Dalai Lama has received peace awards and honorary doctorate degrees from a number of Western universities and institutions in recognition of his distinguished writings in Buddhist philosophy, as well as his outstanding leadership in the service of freedom and peace.
Working for Peace
In the run-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, unrest erupted in Tibet in anticipation of increased Chinese government repression. The Dalai Lama urged restraint and condemned Chinese violence. Many Tibetans were frustrated by his comments, which they saw as ineffective, and by Chinese accusations that the Dalai Lama incited the violence, which he strongly denies.
While the United Nations has passed several resolutions against China, calling for the respect of fundamental human rights and the cessation of human rights violations, and expressing concern about ongoing human rights violations in Tibet, little has been done to address the issue. Proposed resolutions to protect Tibetan human rights have been postponed or reworded in recent years to relieve pressure on the Chinese government.
The then Chinese President Hu Jintao has shown no signs of moving toward peace and reconciliation with Tibet in recent years. Some believe that the Chinese government is simply waiting for the Dalai Lama to die in order to extinguish any remaining hopes for an autonomous, democratic Tibet. Following gallstone surgery, the Dalai Lama announced his semi-retirement in December 2008.
The Dalai Lama announced his resignation as Tibet’s political leader on March 10, 2011, the 52nd anniversary of his exile from Tibet. He stated that the decision was based on a long-held belief that Tibetans required a freely elected leader. A Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman called his resignation “a trick.”
On the advice of his doctors, the Dalai Lama cancelled several speaking engagements in the United States scheduled for October 2015. Following a routine annual checkup, the 80-year-old spiritual leader was advised to rest for several weeks and was admitted to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, for further evaluation.