Tibetan supreme spiritual ruler of his country, in exile. Some six million Tibetans believe him to be the reborn soul of Buddha of Compassion, the Protector of the Land of Snows, the Holder of the White Lotus, the Mighty of Speech, Tibet’s Wish-Fulfilling Gem, and Kundun-the Presence.
Born in a small village in Tibet to farmer parents, he was the fifth of seven children. When the 13th Dalai Lama died in 1933, Tibetan elders searched through the nation’s children to find him in this, his 14th incarnation. When the search party reached his parent’s mud and stone house in Taktser in 1937, the toddler passed a series of tests: He named the monk leading the search, and he picked out several objects that had belonged to his predecessor.
The young boy was proclaimed the Dalai Lama and installed on the Lion Throne in the thousand-room palace in Lhasa, Tibet’s holy city. His parents were not only greatly honoured but given property and gifts. A regent ruled Tibet until the boy was old enough to assume his destined role.
Though he was given a thorough spiritual education, he was nonetheless a kid, and played a kid’s tricks and games, sometimes getting into trouble and scolded. He insists that he has no regrets about a lost childhood. “The important thing is that men should have a purpose in life,” he says. “It should be something useful, something good.”
The country was invaded by Chinese communists in 1950 and three years ahead of schedule, the 15-year-old boy was given political and religious authority under difficult circumstances. The Chinese claimed they came to “liberate” Tibet from the “poison of imperialism and religion.” In 1959, when Chinese forces drew close to Lhasa, threatening his life, His Holiness, accompanied by a few close advisors and family members, fled with the help of the CIA’s Special Activities Division and crossed into India on 30 March 1959.
As a result of Chinese occupation of Tibet, more than a million have died, some 80,000 have fled the country and some 6,000 Buddhist monasteries have been destroyed. To the Chinese, he is such a formidable figure that people in Tibet are forbidden to carry or even display his likeness.
The Dalai Lama’s home is about 150 miles from the country he leads, in a remote corner of northern India that is reached only after a difficult journey between mountain crags and steep drops. He lives an ascetic and celibate existence, rising at 3:30 AM for his first hours of prayer.
His diet is simple with a small amount of meat. Though Buddhists avoid killing animals for food, they do eat meat when killed by others. He exercises, and pays great attention to the news, enjoying nature and science stories. His hobby is fixing watches, but he “totally blanks out” with computers.
Calling himself the “simple monk” he is famously cheerful with an infectious, uninhibited chortle. Since winning the Nobel Peace Prize on 5 October 1989, he has become increasingly familiar to Westerners. He welcomes the attention of Hollywood stars which helps illuminate his lifelong pacifist goal of returning his people to Tibet.
On 27 January 2002, the Dalai Lama was admitted to a hospital in Mumbai, India with a bowel infection.
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