The Dalai Lama was born in 1935 in Amdo, Tibet. His parents were small time farmers who grew barley, buckwheat and potatoes. He was discovered to be the incarnate of the 13th Dalai Lama in 1937 when he was barely 3 years old. He travelled for 3 months to Lhasa where he spent the next 12 years of his life pursuing a doctorate in Buddhism and other studies.
At the age of 15, the Dalai Lama was faced with a full scale invasion by the Peoples Liberation Army of China (PLA). He knew his army of 8,500 men were useless against the trained military might of the thousands upon thousands of PLA soldiers. So he asked for help. He sent delagations to America, Nepal and Great Britain asking for their intervention of the Chinese. They all turned their backs on him.
"I remember feeling great sorrow when I realised what this really meant: Tibet must expect to face the entire might of Communist China alone.”
The next 9 years of his life The Dalai Lama spent trying to evade a full blown war and military takeover of Tibet by the Chinese. In 1959, in fear of his life, the Dalai Lama fled Tibet reluctantly leaving his people and his homeland, never to return as their spiritual and political leader.
The Dalai Lama has spent the rest of his life in Dharamsala, Northern India and travelling from continent to continent promoting peace, non-violence and goodwill. In 1989 he won the NOBEL PEACE PRIZE.
"What these positive changes indicate is that reason, courage, determination, and the inextinguishable desire for freedom, can ultimately win. In the struggle between forces of war, violence and oppression on the one hand, and peace, reason and freedom in the other, the latter are gaining the upper hand. This realization fills us Tibetans with hope that some day we too will once again be free."
His Holiness the Dalai Lama is renowned for his skill in weaving together East and West, today and tomorrow, and offering an insight to an inner calm and clarity of mind. The Dalai Lama continues to press for constitutional reform. Regardless of Chinese presence, Tibetan Buddhists still regard the Dalai Lama as their spiritual leader.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama's Official Website
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