![]() ![]() 'Obviously,' the Fourteenth Dalai Lama said, 'the Thirteenth Dalai Lama had a keen desire to establish relations with Russia. the Ninth Panchen Lama (18831937), was visited by Agvan Dorzhiev. He has embraced technology, with a comprehensive website and a larger Twitter following than the Pope (19 million vs 17 million), despite there being an estimated 500 million more Catholics in the world than Buddhists. He was probably also instrumental in saving the young Dalai Lamas life from the intrigues at the court in Lhasa. How has it changed Buddhism?įrom his base in Dharamshala, in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, the Dalai Lama has spread Buddhism's message far and wide - and garnered support from followers globally for the Free Tibet movement. "The level of reverence is undiminished - if anything it's probably higher than when he was still there."Ĭhina disputes this, too, with Mr Wu claiming the Dalai Lama hasn't done a "single good thing" for Tibet since he left. On March 19, 1959, fighting broke out in earnest in Lhasa. When two artillery shells struck the palace two days later, the young Dalai Lama and his ministers began the arduous 14-day trek over the Himalayas for India. He was undoubtedly the most important person in Tibet, and still is for most Tibetans," said John Powers, a professor at Deakin University who specialises in Tibetan Buddhism. Tibetan troops prepared a secure escape route out of the besieged capital on March 15. Tibetans accuse China of ratcheting up repression in the years that followed, and there have been several outbreaks of unrest and protest against Chinese rule in the intervening years.įor those who stayed behind, the absence of the Dalai Lama left a vacuum that's been impossible to fill. "Realising that we were not be able to go back - that was very, very hard." Born to a peasant family, His Holiness was recognized at the age of two, in accordance with Tibetan tradition, as the reincarnation of his predecessor. ![]() ![]() He was born in a small village called Taktser in northeastern Tibet. "At first, we thought we could just escape for a few months, then return," he told the ABC. His Holiness the XIVth Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, is the spiritual and temporal leader of the Tibetan people. Tibet's government, with a then-teenage Dalai Lama at its head, signed a treaty that professed to preserve Buddhism and Tibetan autonomy.Ī resistance movement soon emerged in opposition to Chinese rule, and on March 10, 1959, thousands of people surrounded the Dalai Lama's palace to protect him against what they believed was an imminent kidnapping or assassination threat. Why did the Dalai Lama flee?Ĭhinese troops invaded Tibet in 1950 and formally incorporated the region into its territory the following year, a source of ongoing controversy to this day (Beijing calls it a "peaceful liberation"). It also set off a chain of events that Beijing likely could not have predicted, and surely did not intend. The unexpected invitation set alarm bells ringing for the Dalai Lama and his senior advisors, who quickly devised an escape route: cross the Himalayas on foot to seek asylum in India. □ Martin Luther King Jr.: "Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle.Amid an uprising against Beijing in Tibet, the Buddhist leader was invited by a senior Chinese general to watch a dance performance. □ Nelson Mandela: "Lead from the back - and let others believe they are in front." □ Kofi Annan: "You are never too young to lead and you should never doubt your capacity to triumph where others have not." □️ Desmond Tutu: “Don’t raise your voice, improve your argument.” □ Thích Nhât Hanh: “You can evaluate the quality of your authority by looking deeply to see if compassion is the foundation of your leadership.” In 1989 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in recognition of his nonviolent campaign to end Chinese domination of Tibet. The Dalai Lama set up a government-in-exile in Dharmsala, India, in the Himalayan Mountains. He fled to exile in India in 1959, the year of the unsuccessful revolt by Tibetans against communist Chinese forces that had occupied the country since 1950. The fourteenth and current Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, was born in 1935 in what is currently the Tsinghai province of China, recognized as the incarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama in 1937, enthroned in 1940, and vested with full powers as head of state in 1950. In accordance with the belief in reincarnate lamas, which began to develop in the 14th century, his successors were conceived as his rebirths. The first of the line was Dge-’dun-grub-pa (1391–1475), founder and abbot of Tashilhunpo monasteryin central Tibet. Image credit: Cmichel67, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commonsĭalai Lama (1391-) is the foremost spiritual leader of the "Yellow Hat" order of Tibetan Buddhists and, until 1959, both spiritual and temporal ruler of Tibet.
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