Back to The Last Dalai Lama

Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso, usually shortened to Tenzin Gyatso was born as Lhamo Thondup on July 6,  1935. He is the 14th Dalai Lama, a spiritual leader revered among the people of Tibet. He is the head of the government-in-exile based in Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh, India.

Tibetans traditionally believe him to be the reincarnation of his predecessors.

The Dalai Lama was the fifth of seven surviving children to a farming family in the village of Taktser.

Lhamo Thondup was recognized formally as the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama at the age of two and renamed Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso (Holy Lord, Gentle Glory, Compassionate, Defender of the Faith, Ocean of Wisdom).

In 1950 the army of the People’s Republic of China invaded the region. One month later, on November 17, 1950, he was enthroned formally as Dalai Lama, and at the age of fifteen he became the region’s most important spiritual leader and political ruler.

The Dalai Lama’s formal rule was brief. In 1951, when he was only 16 years old, the Chinese military pressured the Dalai Lama to ratify a Seventeen Point Agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet which permitted the People’s Republic of China to take control of Tibet. He tried to work with the Chinese government, and in September 1954, together with the 10th Panchen Lama, he went to the Chinese capital to meet Mao Zedong and attend the first session of the National People’s Congress as a delegate, primarily discussing China’s constitution. On September 27, 1954 the Dalai Lama was selected as a deputy chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress.

In 1959, during a failed uprising in Tibet ending with the effective collapse of the Tibetan resistance movement, the Dalai Lama’s entourage suspected that the Chinese government may have been planning to kill him. On March 17, he fled through the mountains to Tawang, India, finally crossing the border on March 31. In April, the 23-year-old Dalai Lama told of his people’s attempt to throw off the Chinese yoke, “The Chinese have taken by force and ruined tens of thousands of homes belonging to my people. Over a thousand monasteries have been destroyed by the Chinese, and more are being reduced to ruin even today.“

It was later established that forces from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency’s Special Activities Division had assisted the Dalai Lama’s escape and supported initial resistance to the Chinese.

In India he established a government-in-exile.

The most influential member of the Gelugpa or Yellow Hat sect, he has considerable influence over the other sects of Tibetan Buddhism. The Chinese government regards him as the symbol of an outmoded theocratic system. Along with roughly 80,000 exiles that followed him, the Dalai Lama strives to preserve traditional Tibetan education and culture.

Conditions in Tibet have in more recent years caused an international protest movement, including the attempted disruption of the 2008 Olympic Games. In March 2008 the Dalai Lama asked for an international inquiry into China’s treatment of Tibet, which he said amounted to cultural genocide.

A noted public speaker worldwide, the Dalai Lama is often described as charismatic. He is the first Dalai Lama to travel to the West, where he seeks to spread Buddhist teachings and to promote ethics and interfaith harmony. In 1989 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In October of 2007 he was awarded the United States Congressional Gold Medal. He has received more than 100 honorary conferments and major awards.

On 25 October 2008, the Dalai Lama announced he had given up negotiating for increased autonomy for Tibet within the People’s Republic of China. He stated that from now on Tibetans themselves should decide how to continue a dialogue with the Chinese government.

On December 17, 2008, after months of speculation, the Dalai Lama announced his semi-retirement. He said that the future course of the movement he had directed for nearly five decades would now be decided by the elected parliament-in-exile with the prime minister Samdhong Rinpoche. The then 73-year-old Nobel laureate, who had recently undergone surgery, told reporters in Dharamsala, “I have grown old…. It is better if I retire completely and get out of the way of the Tibetan movement.”

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenzin_Gyatso