Biography
Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva of Compassion
The Dalai Lama, whose name derives from of a Mongol title meaning “ocean (of wisdom)” is considered by Tibetan Buddhists to be a manifestation of Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva of compassion and protective patron of Tibet.
The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, was born on 6 July 1935 into a peasant family in the village of Takster in Tibet. Two years later, Lhamo Döndrup, as his parents called him, was recognized as the fourteenth manifestation of the Dalai Lama and was taken to Lhasa.
On 22 February 1940, at the age of four and a half, he was solemnly enthroned and received the name Tenzin Gyatso. He began his formal education at the age of six and followed the entire course of Buddhist studies leading up to the highest degree of Geshe Lharampa. Throughout his training in both Buddhist philosophy and meditation, he received instruction from some of the greatest masters of Tibet.
His Holiness the XIV
Dalai Lama
In 1950, amid mounting tension with Communist China, the Dalai Lama was obliged to assume the full political leadership of his country and was enthroned as the temporal and spiritual leader of Tibet, although he was only fifteen years old. One year later, Chinese troupes invaded the country. In 1954 he travelled to Peking in the hope of negotiating a peaceful settlement with Mao Tse-tung and other Chinese leaders, among them Chou En-lai and Deng Xiaoping. In 1956, on the occasion of the Buddha Jayanti, the 2500th anniversary of the Buddha's Parinirvana, the Dalai Lama visited India. Many of his advisors pressed him not to go home but to stay in India. He decided, however, to return to Lhasa and to continue his efforts to establish a form of peaceful coexistence with the occupying Chinese forces.
The atrocities committed by the Chinese in the East of Tibet thwarted his efforts for a peaceful resolution to the conflict between China and Tibet, and a popular uprising in Lhasa was brutally repressed on 10 March 1959. By 1960, this final protest against the Chinese invasion had claimed the lives of about ninety thousand Tibetans. Since these events, every year the Tibetan people commemorate the victims of March 10th.
Escape from Tibet
Owing to these developments, the Dalai Lama was obliged flee to safety across the Himalayas, followed by over one hundred thousand Tibetans. In 1960, the Dalai Lama established the Tibetan Government in Exile in Dharamsala, India. Since then, he has worked tirelessly and by every means available to improve the condition of Tibet and its people.
In the early years of his exile, the Dalai Lama appealed to the United Nations for a solution to the Tibetan question. In 1959, 1961, and 1965, the UN adopted resolutions demanding fundamental human rights for Tibetans as well as their right to self-determination.
Regarding the Tibetan community, the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Government in Exile are determined to do all they can to preserve the Tibetan people and its culture by providing for refugees, promoting economic development and creating an educational system of schools and universities. More than two hundred monasteries have been re-established in exile. In 1963, the Dalai Lama promulgated a draft constitution for a future free Tibet and has promoted the establishment of a democratic Tibetan society.
The Tibetan Flag
Moreover, in addition to his work for the Tibetans in exile, he has been untiring in his efforts to find a non-violent solution to the Tibetan question.
In 1987, as a first step towards clarifying the future status of his country, the Dalai Lama unveiled a Five Point Peace Plan, which he developed further in June the following year in a speech given before the European Parliament at Strasbourg. He called for genuine Tibetan autonomy within the confines of the People’s Republic of China; he asked that Tibet be declared a “zone of peace”; that the policy of massive settlement of ethnic Chinese in Tibet be discontinued; that human rights be fully restored; and that the stockpiling of nuclear weapons and the disposal of nuclear waste in Tibet be brought to an end. Finally he demanded that the future of the country be subject to genuine negotiation.
The Nobel Peace Prize
In 1989, the Dalai Lama, as leader of the Tibetans, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to find a non-violent solution to the Tibetan question. The statement of the Nobel Committee declared:
The Dalai Lama as developed his philosophy of peace based on a profound respect for all living beings and on a concept of universal responsibility that embraces not only the human species but the whole of the natural world.
In July 2001, the Dalai Lama decreed a reduction in his personal political powers. At his behest, the Tibetans in exile conducted elections and chose Professor Samdhong Rinpoche as their first prime minister.
In the course of his travels around the world, the Dalai Lama has been officially received by many heads of state. Meetings with him are requested by leading figures in every field: politics, religion, science and economy. In many countries, he is repeatedly invited to speak at public conferences before thousands of people on the subject of harmonious coexistence and peace in the world.