The Dalai Lama

"A simple Buddhist monk." That's the answer you'd receive if you were ever fortunate enough to ask Tenzin Gyatso what he considered himself to be. Quite a humble response from someone who is often referred to as his holiness, the wishful filing gem, or simply the presence by Tibetans. You see, that simple Buddhist monk is the 14th Dalai Lama. Now you may not be too familiar with exactly what that means, and no it does not in any way have to do with the llamas that spit. In short, the Dalai Lamas are the manifestations of the Bodhisattva (Buddha) of Compassion who chose to be reincarnated to serve the people, and indeed helping people is exactly what his holiness the Dalai Lama sets out to do. As I continue, I'd like to discuss with you several topics, such as how the discovery of the current Dalai Lama came about, some of the major events that have taken place since coming into full power, as well as the recognition that the Dalai Lama has received

for his achievements over the course of his reign.

I'll begin with how the discovery of the current Dalai Lama came about. On December 17,1933 the 13th Dalai Lama passed away at the age of 57. The Tibetan Government was confronted with the task of searching for and discovering a child in whom the Buddha of Compassion would incarnate. The current Dalai Lama was born into a peasant family on July 6th, 1935, in a small village called Taktser in north eastern Tibet. His Holiness was recognized at the age of two as the reincarnation of his predecessor the 13th Dalai Lama. In 1935 the Regent of Tibet went to a sacred lake that for centuries was believed by Tibetans to hold visions of the future. The Regent had a vision of three Tibetan letters, Ah, Ka, and Ma, followed by a picture of a monastery with roofs of jade green and gold, and a house with turquoise tiles. In 1937 high lamas and dignitaries carrying the secrets of this vision were sent to all parts of Tibet in search of the place that had been seen in the waters. In Amdo, they found a place matching the description of the secret vision. The search party went to the house with High Lama Kewtsang Rinpoche of Sera Monastery disguised as a servant, and a junior official Lobsang Tsewang disguised as the leader. Rinpoche was wearing a rosary that had belonged to the 13th Dalai Lama, and the little boy of the house recognized it and demanded that it be given to him. Rinpoche promised to give it to him if he could guess who he was, and the boy replied that he was "Sera aga", which means "a lama of Sera". Then Rinpoche asked who the leader was and the boy gave his name correctly; he also knew the name of the real servant. This was followed by a series of tests that included the choosing of correct articles that had belonged to the 13th Dalai Lama. These tests convinced them further that the reincarnation had been found and in 1940 the 14th Dalai Lama was enthroned.

At 6 years old most of us were just starting to grasp the concept of reading, for the Dalai Lama this, and many more responsibilities and events were to come. His education began at the age of six and was completed with the Geshe Lharampa Degree (Doctorate of Buddhist Philosophy) when he was 25 in 1959. However, On November 17, 1950, at the age of 15 he was called upon to assume full political power as the head of the State and Government, after some 80,000 Peoples Liberation Army soldiers invaded Tibet. In 1954, he went to Beijing to talk peace with Mao Tse-tung and other Chinese leaders, including Chou En-lai and Deng Xiaoping. In 1956, while visiting India he had a series of meetings with Prime Minister Nehru and Premier Chou about deteriorating conditions in Tibet. On 10 March 1959 the capital of Tibet, Lhasa, exploded with the largest demonstration in Tibetan history, calling on China to leave Tibet and reaffirming Tibet's independence. However, the Chinese army would hear nothing of it. The Dalai Lama escaped to India where he was given political asylum. Nearly 80,000 Tibetan refugees followed him into exile. Since 1960, the Dalai Lama has resided in Dharamsala, India, known as "Little Lhasa," the seat of the Tibetan Government-in-exile. In the early years of exile, he appealed to the United Nations on the question of Tibet, resulting in three resolutions adopted by the General Assembly in 1959, 1961, and 1965, calling on China to respect the human rights of Tibetans. With the newly constituted Tibetan Government-in-exile, he saw that the task at hand was to save both the Tibetan exiles and their culture. Economic development was promoted and the creation of a Tibetan educational system was established to raise refugee children with full knowledge of their language, history, religion and culture, and Over 200 monasteries were re-established to

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