Jump to content

14th Dalai Lama

Edit links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 70.112.43.13 (talk) at 18:56, 23 September 2005 (→Quotations). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

File:DalaiLama.jpg
His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso
The fourteenth Dalai Lama

Tenzin Gyatso (Tibetan: བསྟན་འཛིན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ Wylie: Bstan 'dzin Rgya mtsho) (b. July 6 1935) is the fourteenth and current Dalai Lama.

Early life

The Dalai Lama was born to a Mongour farming family as Lhamo Thondup (also spelled Lhamo Dhondrub among other spellings) on July 6 1935, in the far northeastern province of Amdo in the village of Taktser, a small and poor settlement which stood on a hill overlooking a broad valley. His parents, Choekyong and Dekyi Tsering, were moderately wealthy farmers among about twenty other families, some ethnic Han Chinese, making a precarious living off the land raising barley, buckwheat, and potatoes. He was the fifth child of nine, the eldest child being his sister Tsering Dolma, who was eighteen years older than he. His oldest brother, Thupten Jigme Norbu has been recognized as the reincarnation of the high lama, Takser Rinpoche. His older brothers are Gyalo Thondup and Lobsang Samten. When the Dalai Lama was about three years old, a search party had been sent out to find the new incarnation of the Dalai Lama. The thirteenth Dalai Lama turned to face the Northeast while he was dying, indicating that that area was where the next Dalai Lama should be found. Shortly after a senior lama had a vision of a house with strangely shaped guttering. They found a house similar to the one in the vision after extensive searching. They presented the boy, Lhama Thondup, various relics and toys of the previous Dalai Lama. It is claimed that he recognized them by saying, "It's mine, It's mine!" [1]

File:His H 22 yrs head.jpg
Tenzin Gyatso at the age of twenty-two

Lhamo Thondup was recognised as the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama and renamed Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso "Holy Lord, Gentle Glory, Compassionate, Defender of the Faith, Ocean of Wisdom"). Tibetan Buddhists normally refer to him as Yeshe Norbu, the "Wish-fulfilling Gem", or just Kundun, "the Presence". In the West he is often called "His Holiness the Dalai Lama", which is the style that the Dalai Lama uses on his official website.

Tenzin Gyatso began his monastic education at the age of six. At twenty-five he sat for his final examination in the Jokhang Temple, Lhasa, during the annual Monlam (prayer) Festival in 1959. He passed with honours and was awarded the Lharampa degree, the highest level geshe degree (roughly equivalent to a doctorate of Buddhist philosophy).

Life as Dalai Lama

As well as being the most influential spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, the Dalai Lama traditionally claims to be Tibet's Head of State and most important political ruler. At the age of fifteen, faced with possible conflict with the Chinese, Tenzin Gyatso was on November 17 1950 enthroned as the temporal leader of Tibet; however, he was only able to govern for a brief time. In October of that year a People's Republic of China army entered territory controlled by the Tibetan administration, easily breaking through the Tibetan defenders.

Styles of
The Dalai Lama
File:DalaiLama.jpg
Reference styleHis Holiness
Spoken styleYour Holiness
Alternative styleSir

The People's Liberation Army stopped short of the old border between Tibet and Xikang and demanded negotiations. The Dalai Lama sent a delegation to Beijing and although he has rejected the subsequent Seventeen Point Agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet, he did in fact work with the Chinese government until 1959. The Dalai Lama fled to Dharamsala, India, on March 17 of that year, entering India on March 31 during the Tibetan uprising.

Tenzin Gyatso is the first Dalai Lama to travel to the West where he has helped spread Buddhism.

In 1989 Tenzin Gyatso was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, with the chairman of the Nobel committee saying that this was "in part a tribute to the memory of Mahatma Gandhi".

Exile in India

Tenzin Gyatso in 1994

The Dalai Lama had brought up the possibility of freeing Tibet with the Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru when relations with China were not proving successful. Nehru did not want to increase tensions between China and India so he encouraged the Dalai Lama to work on the Seventeen Point Agreement Tibet had with China. Eventually in 1959 the Dalai Lama fled Tibet and set up the government of Tibet in Exile in Dharamsala, India which is often referred to as "Little Lhasa".

After the founding of the exiled government he rehabilitated the Tibetan refugees that followed him in exile in agricultural settlements. He created a Tibetan educational system in order to teach the Tibetan children their language, history, religion, and culture. The Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts was established in 1959 and the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies became the primary university for Tibetans in India. He supported the refounding of 200 monasteries in order to preserve Tibetan Buddhist teachings and the Tibetan way of life.

The Dalai Lama appealed to the United Nations on the question of Tibet which resulted in three resolutions adopted by the General Assembly in 1959, 1961, and 1965. These resolutions required China to respect the human rights of Tibetans and their desire for self-determination.

In 1963 he promulgated a supposed democratic constitution which is based upon the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. A Tibetan parliament-in-exile is elected by the refugees in India and the Tibetan Government in Exile is likewise elected by the Tibetan parliament.

At the Congressional Human Rights Caucus in 1987 in Washington D.C., he proposed a Five-Point Peace Plan regarding the future status of Tibet. The plan called for Tibet to become a "zone of peace" and for the end of movement by ethnic Chinese into Tibet. It also called for respect for fundamental human rights and democratic freedoms and the end of China's use of Tibet for nuclear weapons production and disposal. Finally it urged "earnest negotiations" on the future of Tibet.

He proposed a similar plan at Strasbourg, France, on 15 June 1988. He expanded on the Five-Point Peace Plan and proposed the creation of a self-governing democratic Tibet, "in association with the People's Republic of China". This plan was rejected by the Tibetan Government-in-Exile in 1991 because of Chinese hostility towards the ideas expressed in the proposal.

In October 1991 he expressed his wish to return to Tibet to try to form a mutual assessment on the situation with the Chinese local government. He fears that a violent uprising will take place and wishes to avoid this.

On July 5 2005 the Dalai Lama called on G8 leaders meeting the next day to ease the plight of the millions starving throughout the world, during a meeting with the rock singer Annie Lennox. He said the meeting had "positive potential". [2]

The Dalai Lama celebrated his seventieth birthday on Wednesday, July 6 2005. About 10,000 Tibetan refugees, monks and foreign tourists gathered outside his home. Patriarch Alexius II of the Russian Orthodox Church said "I confess that the Russian Orthodox Church highly appreciates the good relations it has with the followers of Buddhism and hopes for their further development" [3]. The President Chen Shui-bian of Taiwan attended an evening celebrating the Dalai Lama's birthday that was entitled "Traveling with Love and Wisdom for 70 Years" at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei. The President invited him to return to Taiwan for a third trip in 2005. The previous trips were in 2001, and 1997. [4]

The Dalai Lama has attempted to return to Tibet but only as long as the Peoples Republic of China sets no preconditions on his return, which they have refused to do [5]. On July 5, 2005 China refused his request to return to Tibet on his birthday despite worries that if he dies in exile it may spark a uprising against the local government in Tibet and neighboring areas. [6]

Foreign relations

Conversations with President George W. Bush in the White House on May 23, 2001

Since 1967, the Dalai Lama has initiated a series of tours in forty-six nations. He met with Pope Paul VI at the Vatican in 1973. He expressed his desire to meet with the Vatican head of state Pope John Paul II. The Pope agreed and met him in 1980 and also later in 1982, 1986, 1988, and 1990. He has also met with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Robert Runcie, and with other leaders of the Anglican church in London. Finally he has met with Jewish and senior Catholic officials. He currently has ongoing relations with the Russian Orthodox Church. Lithuanian President Vytautas Landsbergis invited him to address the Lithuanian Parliament. He was the first foreign leader to do so. He currently has ongoing relations with India, and has had relations in the past with the United Nations and the United States. In an unusual event the Dalai Lama was refused a visit to South Korea in 2001. [7] Chinese envoys and the Dalai Lama's have had four talks since September 2002 over the Tibet Question which has been met by international support. [8]

Social and political stances

File:Dalai Lama, Berlin 2003.jpg
The fourteenth Dalai Lama at an ecumenic reunion 2003 in Berlin

Tibetan independence movement

After the 1951 Seventeen Point Agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet with China the Dalai Lama is thought to have supported the creation of the Tibetan resistance movement. His brothers moved to Kalimpong in India and with the help of the Indian and American governments organized propaganda against China and the smuggling of weapons into Tibet. Armed struggle broke out in Amdo and Kham in 1956 and later spread to Central Tibet. However the movement was a failure and forced to retreat to Nepal and/or go underground. Following normalisation of relations between the United States and China, American support was cut off in the early 1970s. The Dalai Lama then began to change his policy towards a peaceful solution in which he would be reinstated in a Democratic Tibet that would be autonomous of China to the extent the Tibetans wished. This is as of July 2005 currently under negotiation. Such a claim to such an extreme form of autonomy is unlikely to sway the Chinese government.

Global political stances

The Dalai Lama is opposed to usage and stockpiling of weapons of mass destruction and supports demilitarization. In 1998 he pledged his support to the People's Republic of China's proposal to ban all weapons of mass destruction. [9] The Dalai Lama opposes wars including the War in Iraq. He blames the world's powers for wars and believes that they are simply an old habit. [10]

Global social stances

The Dalai endorsed the founding of the Dalai Lama Foundation in order to promote peace and ethics worldwide. [11] He also is reported to have said regarding homosexuality, "If the two people have taken no vows [of chastity], and neither is harmed why should it not be acceptable?" He holds that according to tradition homosexuality and other topics like birth control are wrong but not everyone adheres to Buddhism or any other philosophy or religion. He also claims to believe that modern science takes precedence over ancient religions. [12]

Criticism

The Dalai Lama has received considerable criticism from the People's Republic of China, which views his activities as subversive and dangerous. The PRC also attempts to keep the Dalai Lama from gaining entry into nations that it has foreign relations with. An example of this was in November 1999, when the Dalai Lama was granted access to visit Israel by the Israeli government, which the PRC immediately criticized.[13] The PRC also claimed in 2001 that the Dalai Lama was supporting Taiwanese independence during his visit to Taiwan in 2001. The Dalai Lama characterized the visit as a spiritual mission. [14] The Dalai Lama has also received criticism for his interest as a child in war toys and as an adult with his interests in World War II monuments. They generally claim that he is obsessed with war yet professes to oppose it. [15].

British Journalist Christopher Hitchens wrote a scathing criticism of the Dalai Lama in 1998 which questioned his support for India's nuclear weapons testing, his selling of indulgences to Hollywood celebrities like Richard Gere and Steven Seagal, his acceptance of a large donation from Shoko Asahara (leader of the Supreme Truth cult in Japan who was responsible for the release of sarin nerve gas on the Tokyo subway) and his statements condoning prostitution.

International influence

File:1101590420 400.jpg
TIME Magazine, April 20 1959

The Dalai Lama speaks English as a second language and has been successful in gaining Western sympathy for Tibetan self-determination, including vocal support from numerous Hollywood celebrities, most notably the actor Richard Gere, as well as lawmakers from several major countries.

Tenzin Gyatso has on occasion been denounced by the Chinese government as a supporter of Tibetan independence. Over time he has developed a public position stating that he is not necessarily in favour of Tibetan independence and would not object to a status in which Tibet has internal autonomy while the PRC manages some aspects of Tibet's defense and foreign affairs. However he has maintained the right of Tibetans to conduct their own foreign policy and would not allow any military forces on Tibetan soil.

There have been intermittent and quiet negotiations between the Tibetan government in exile and the government of the People's Republic of China. These days the Dalai Lama wishes to discuss the issue of the status of Tibet within China, while the Chinese government has insisted that negotiations be limited to the conditions of the Dalai Lama's return to Tibet.

On April 18 2005 Time Magazine placed Tenzin Gyatso on its list of the world's 100 most influential people.

Writings of the Dalai Lama

Quotations

Wikiquote has quotations related to 14th Dalai Lama.
  • "In the practice of tolerance, one's enemy is the best teacher."
  • "I am a simple Buddhist monk - no more, no less."
  • "My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness."
  • "This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness."
  • "All major religious traditions carry basically the same message, that is love, compassion and forgiveness ... the important thing is they should be part of our daily lives."
  • “The very purpose of religion is to control yourself, not to criticize others. Rather, we must criticize ourselves. How much am I doing about my anger? About my attachment, about my hatred, about my pride, my jealousy? These are the things which we must check in daily life."
  • "If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion."
  • "It is very important to generate a good attitude, a good heart, as much as possible. From this, happiness in both the short term and the long term for both yourself and others will come."
  • "Human happiness and human satisfaction must ultimately come from within oneself. It is wrong to expect some final satisfaction to come from money or from a computer."
  • "Compassion and tolerance are not a sign of weakness, but a sign of strength."
  • "Buddhism does not accept a theory of God, or a creator. According to Buddhism, one's own actions are the creator, ultimately. Some people say that, from a certain angle, Buddhism is not a religion but rather a science of mind. Religion has much involvement with faith. Sometimes it seems that there is quite a distance between a way of thinking based on faith and one entirely based on experiment, remaining skeptical. Unless you find something through investigation, you do not want to accept it as fact. From one viewpoint, Buddhism is a religion, from another viewpoint Buddhism is a science of mind and not a religion. Buddhism can be a bridge between these two sides. Therefore, with this conviction I try to have closer ties with scientists, mainly in the fields of cosmology, psychology, neurobiology and physics. In these fields there are insights to share, and to a certain extent we can work together."
  • [When asked at a talk on global responsibility what to do about the war in Iraq] "This lies far beyond my wisdom. (University of Texas, September 21 2005)

Awards given to the Dalai Lama

The Dalai Lama has received numerous awards over his political career. The most recent was on May 28, 2005 when he received the Christmas Humphrey's Award from the Buddhist Society in the United Kingdom. Perhaps his most notable award was the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo on December 10, 1989 (see below). Some other notable awards he has received:

A complete list

Nobel Peace Prize

File:Nobel.gif
The Dalai Lama receiving the Nobel Peace Prize

In 1989 Tenzin Gyatso was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, with the chairman of the Nobel committee saying that this was "in part a tribute to the memory of Mahatma Gandhi." He was officially awarded it because the committee wished to recognize his efforts in the struggle of the liberation of Tibet and the efforts for a peaceful resolution instead of using violence. [16]. He criticized China in his acceptance speech for the use of force against the student protesters during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. He stated however that their effort was not in vain. His speech focused on the importance of the continued use of non-violence and his desire to maintain a dialogue with China to try to resolve the situation. [17]

Films about the Dalai Lama

Among the films that have been recently made about the 14th Dalai Lama are Kundun and Seven Years in Tibet.

Other recent films include:

Trivia

The email titled "Instructions for Life in the New Millennium from the Dalai Lama" was actually written by H. Jackson Brown Jr in his book, "Life's Little Instruction Book" – instead of the Dalai Lama, which is popularly believed. Follow the link for the text of the e-mail. [18]

See also

References

Literary

Freedom in Exile, the Autobiography of the Dalai Lama. (Text from [19])

Internet

  1. "Cosmic Harmony". Dalai Lama Address to the United Nations. July 7. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
  2. "lattimes.com". Dalai Lama Calls Urges G-8 to Action. July 7. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
  3. "Interfax". Patriarch congratulates Dalai Lama on 70th birthday. July 7. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
  4. "CNA news". President invites Dalai Lama to visit Taiwan again. July 7. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
  5. "Global Village News". Dalai Lama Considers Ending Exile & Return To Tibet. July 9. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
  6. "Hinustan Times". China rules out birthday present for Dalai Lama. July 9. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
  7. "World Tibet Network News". South Korea Government Faces Criticism After Refusal to Allow Dalai Lama's Visit. July 7. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
  8. "World Peace Herald". U.S. welcomes China-Dalai Lama envoy talks. July 7. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
  9. "World Tibet Network News". His Holiness the Dalai Lama's view on India's Nuclear Tests. July 7. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
  10. "The Government of Tibet in Exile". His Holiness the Dalai Lama's views on war and Iraq conflict. July 9. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
  11. "The Dalai Lama Foundation". Missions and Programs. July 8. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
  12. "Boston.com". The Buddha of suburbia. July 9. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
  13. "CNN.com". China keeps up attacks on Dalai Lama. July 7. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
  14. "World Tibet Network News". Dalai Lama arrives in Israel despite Chinese criticism (AFP). July 7. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
  15. "trimondi.de". The War of Gods behind the mask of peace. July 9. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
  16. "The Nobel Prize". Dalai Lama (Tenzin Gyatso). July 9. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
  17. "The Government of Tibet in Exile". His Holiness the Dalai Lama's Nobel Prize acceptance speech University Aula, Oslo, 10 December 1989. July 9. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
Preceded by Reincarnation of the Dalai Lama Succeeded by
incumbent

Template:Buddhism2Template:Link FA

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=14th_Dalai_Lama&oldid=23851691"