Dalai Lama Biography

As The Dalai Lama, the peasant boy was renamed as “Holy Lord, Gentle Glory, Compassionate, Defender of the Faith, Ocean of Wisdom.” Tibetans refer to him as “Yeshe Norbu” (the wish fulfilling gem) or as “Kundun” (The Presence).

The Dalai Lama was enthroned at the age of five, in Llasa, the capital of Tibet. He was educated from the age of six and, at twenty-five years of age, received the Geshe Lharampa Degree – a Doctorate of Buddhist Philosophy.

In 1950, at just fifteen, the Dalai Lama was called upon to assume full political power as Head of State and Government, following the invasion of Tibet by thousands of soldiers from the People’s Liberation Army.

In 1959, the Tibetan National Uprising occurred – a huge demonstration in Llasa calling for the Chinese to leave Tibet and reasserting Tibet’s independence. However, the Chinese army crushed this attempt at liberation, and The Dalai Lama was forced to flee to India and seek political asylum. Over 80,000 Tibetans followed him into exile.

From then on, The Dalai Lama devoted himself to drawing the attentions of the major world leaders to the plight of Tibet and its people. In 1960, he settled in Dharamsala in India – known as “Little Llasa” - and set up intensive programmes intended to protect the people and the cultural inheritance of Tibet.

In 1987, at the Congressional Human Rights Caucus The Dalai Lama set out his five-point plan for Tibet. Firstly, he asked for Tibet to become a “zone of peace”; secondly, he wanted to see an end to the importation of ethnic Chinese into Tibet. He also called for the restoration of Human Rights and Democratic Freedoms in Tibet; a ban on the manufacture of nuclear weapons and the dumping of nuclear waste in his country by the Chinese government; and the continuation of “earnest negotiations” regarding the future of Tibet.

The Dalai Lama won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, and was praised for his continuing efforts to reclaim Tibet for its people, and his unwavering belief that peaceful negotiations and democracy are the only ways to solve conflict.

The Dalai Lama describes himself as a simple Buddhist monk, and has publicly stated that, when Tibet gains its independence, he will not hold a political office.