Dalai Lama

Note: This article is about the Dalai Lama lineage. For information on the 14th and current Dalai Lama, see Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama

File:Tenzin Gyatzo foto 2.jpg

The 14th and current Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso (born 1935).

The Dalai Lama (meaning "Ocean of Wisdom) is an institution and position of great importance in Tibetan Buddhism, whose incumbant is considered to be the spiritual figurehead of the Tibetan people. In addition to his supreme religious and temporal authority, the Dalai Lama is also widely revered as an incarnation of the bodhisattva Avalokitesvara ("Chenrezig" in Tibetan), the embodiment of compassion. Though especially important within the Gelug sect, all four Tibetan schools of Buddhism respect the Dalai Lama, despite their different Buddhist teachings. It should be noted then that the institution of the Dalai Lama is much older than the current incumbent of the position, Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama (see picture inset).

Historically, the title of the Dalai Lama was intoduced in 1578 C.E., when Altan Khan of the Mongols bestowed it upon Sonam Gyatso (1543–1588), the third hierarch of the Geluk school of Tibetan Buddhism, commonly called the Yellow Hat sect. The title was then retroactively given to two predecessors dating back to 1391 C.E. Ever since, it is believed that the institution of the Dalai Lama has been maintained through a successive lineage of reborn Tulkus.

While the Dalai Lama is deeply respected today, some of the position's former incumbents were conspicious for their worldly habits, and the position has not been without controversy, power struggles, and political intreague. Between the 17th century and 1959, the Dalai Lama was the head of the Tibetan government, administering a large portion of the country from the capital of Lhasa. Since 1959, however, the current Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, has lived in exile from his homeland due to the Chinese takeover of the country. The future of the position in Chinese occupied Tibet is uncertain. Tha Dalai Lama's current residence in exile is located in the town of Dharamsala, India.

In 1989, the 14th Dalai Lama won the Noble Peace Prize for his ongoing efforts to negotiate a peaceful resolution to the Chinese occupation of Tibet. He is viewed by many as a voice and spiritual embodiment of peace, dialogue, and reason in our modern world. Thus the office of the Dalai Lama commands a great deal of respect and admiration among millions of Buddhists and non-Buddhist around the world.

History

File:8thDalaiLama.jpg

8th Dalai Lama

"Dalai" means "Ocean" in Mongolian, and "Lama" (bla ma) is the Tibetan equivalent of the Sanskrit word "guru," and is commonly translated to mean "spiritual teacher". The actual title was first bestowed by the Mongolian ruler Altan Khan upon Sonam Gyatso in 1578. Gyatso was an abbot at the Drepung monastery who was widely considered the most eminent lama of his time. Although Sonam Gyatso became the first lama to hold the title "Dalai Lama," due to the fact that he was the third member of his lineage, he became known as the "3rd Dalai Lama." The previous two titles were conferred posthumously upon his earlier incarnations.

The 5th Dalai Lama, with the support of Gushri Khan, a Mongol ruler of Khökh Nuur, united Tibet. The Dalai Lamas continued to partially rule in Tibet with, to some extent, autonomous power given by contemporary Chinese governments, until the People's Republic of China invaded the region in 1949 and then took full control in 1959. The 14th Dalai Lama then fled to India and has since ceded temporal power to an elected government-in-exile. The current 14th Dalai Lama seeks greater autonomy for Tibet.

Lobsang Gyatso (Wylie transliteration: Blo-bzang Rgya-mtsho), the Great Fifth Dalai Lama, (1617-1682) was the first Dalai Lama to wield effective political power over central Tibet.

The 5th Dalai Lama is known for unifying Tibet under the control of the Geluk school of Tibetan Buddhism, after defeating the rival Kagyu and Jonang sects and the secular ruler, the prince of Shang, in a prolonged civil war. His efforts were successful in part because of aid from Gushi Khan, a powerful Oirat military leader. The Jonang monasteries were either closed or forcibly converted, and that school remained in hiding until the latter part of the 20th century.

In 1652, the Fifth Dalai Lama visited the Manchu emperor, Shunzhi.

The fifth Dalai lama initiated the construction of the Potala Palace in Lhasa, and moved the centre of government there from Drepung.

The Potala Palace in Lhasa

The death of the fifth Dalai Lama in 1680 was kept hidden for 15 years by his assistant, confidant, and possibly son Desi Sangay Gyatso (De-srid Sangs-rgyas Rgya-'mtsho). The Dalai Lamas remained Tibet's titular heads of state until 1959.

During the rule of the Great Fifth, the first Europeans visited Tibet. Two Jesuit missionaries, Johannes Gruber and Albert D'Orville, reached Lhasa in 1661.^{[citation needed]} They failed to win any Tibetan converts to Christianity. Other Christian missionaries spent time in Tibet, with equal lack of success, until all were expelled in 1745.

The Sixth Dalai Lama enjoyed a lifestyle that included drinking, the company of women, and writing love songs. Declaring him to be unworthy as a monk, Mongol leader Lha-bzang Khan invaded Tibet with the approval of China's Kangxi emperor in 1705. The Dalai Lama died soon afterwards, probably killed by some one. Tibetans angrily rejected the spurious Dalai Lama candidate Lha-bzang brought with him and turned to the Dzungar (or Oyrat) Mongols for relief. The Dzungars defeated and killed Lha-bzang, but then proceeded to sack Lhasa and loot the tomb of the fifth Dalai Lama. They stayed until a Chinese expedition expelled them in 172.0 The Chinese were hailed as liberators and patrons of Kelzang Gyatso, who they installed as the seventh Dalai Lama. Following the Qing withdrawal from central Tibet in 1723, there was a period of civil war. Amdo, meanwhile, was declared a Chinese territory under the name Koko Nor (blue lake). (This became the province of Qinghai in 1929.)

Pho-lha-nas ruled Tibet with Chinese support in 1728-47. He moved the Dalai Lama from Lhasa to Litang to make it more difficult for him to influence the government. After Pho-lha-nas died, his son ruled until he was killed by the ambans in 175.0 This provoked riots during which the ambans were killed. A Chinese army entered the country and restored order. In 175,1 the Qianlong emperor issued a 13-point decree which abolished the position of regent (desi), put the Tibetan government in the hands of a four-man kashag, or council of ministers, and gave the ambans formal powers. The Dalai Lama moved back to Lhasa to preside over the new government.

The Qianlong emperor was disappointed with the results of his 1751 decree and the performance the ambans. "Tibetan local affairs were left to the willful actions of the Dalai Lama and the shapes [Kashag members]," he said. "The Commissioners were not only unable to take charge, they were also kept uninformed. This reduced the post of the Residential Commissioner in Tibet to name only." In 179,2 the emperor issued a 29-point decree which appeared to tighten Chinese control over Tibet. It strengthened the powers of the ambans, who were in theory put on a par with the Dalai and Panchen Lamas and given authority over financial, diplomatic and trade affairs. It also outlined a new method to select both the Dalai and Panchen Lama by means of a lottery administered by the ambans in Lhasa. In this lottery the names of the competing candidates were written on folded slips of paper which were placed in a golden urn. The tenth, eleventh and twelfth Dalai Lamas were selected by the golden urn method. The ninth, thirteen, and fourteenth Dalai Lamas, however, were selected by the previous incarnation's entourage, or labrang, with the selection being approved after the fact by Beijing.

When the British mission reached Lhasa, the Dalai Lama had already fled to Urga in Mongolia, Younghusband found the option of returning to India empty-handed untenable, he proceeded to draft a treaty unilaterally, and have it signed in the Potala by the regent, Ganden Tri Rinpoche, and any other Tibetan officials he could gather together as an ad hoc government. The Tibetan ministers whom Younghusband dealt with had apparently, unknown to him, just been appointed to their posts. The regular ministers had been imprisoned for suspected pro-British leanings and it was feared they would be too accomodating to Younghusband.

A treaty was concluded which required Tibet to open its border with British India, to allow British and Indian traders to travel freely, not to impose customs duties on trade with India, a demand from British that Lhasa had to pay 2.5 million rupees as indemnity and not to enter into relations with any foreign power without British approval.

The Anglo-Tibetan treaty was accordingly confirmed by a Sino-British treaty in 1906 by which the "Government of Great Britain engages not to annex Tibetan territory or to interfere in the administration of Tibet. The Government of China also undertakes not to permit any other foreign State to interfere with the territory or internal administration of Tibet." Moreover, Beijing agreed to pay London 2.5 million rupees which Lhasa was forced to agree upon in the Anglo-Tibetan treaty of 1904. In 1907, Britain and Russia agreed that in "conformity with the admitted principle of the suzerainty of China over Thibet" both nations "engage not to enter into negotiations with Thibet except through the intermediary of the Chinese Government." In 191,0 the Qing government sent a military expedition of its own to establish direct Chinese rule and deposed the Dalai Lama in an imperial edict. The Dalai Lama once again fled, this time to India. "By going in and then coming out again, we knocked the Tibetans down and left them for the first comer to kick," wrote Charles Albert Bell, a British diplomatic officer stationed in Sikkim and a critic of the Liberal government's policy.

In early 1913, the Dalai Lama returned to Lhasa and issued a proclamation distributed throughout Tibet which condemned, "The Chinese intention of colonizing Tibet under the patron-priest relationship" and stated that, "We are a small, religious, and independent nation." Tibet and Mongolia are said to have signed a treaty in 1913 recognizing each other's independence; however there is no way to verify the existence of such document.

Tibet established at Foreign Office in 1942 and in 1946 it sent congratulatory missions to China and India (related to the end of World War II). The mission to China was given a letter addressed to Chinese President Chiang Kai-sek which states that, "We shall continue to maintain the independence of Tibet as a nation ruled by the successive Dalai Lamas through an authentic religious-political rule." The mission agreed to attend a Chinese constitutional assembly in Nanjing as observers.

By the mid-1950s there was unrest in eastern Kham and Amdo, where land reform had been implemented in full. These rebellions eventually spread into western Kham and Ü-Tsang. In 1959 (at the time of the Great Leap Forward in China), the Chinese authorities treated the Dalai Lama, by now an adult, with open impiety. In some parts of the country Chinese Communists tried to establish rural communes, as was happening in the whole of China. These events triggered riots in Lhasa, and then a full-scale rebellion occurred.

The resistance in Lhasa was soon crushed, and the Dalai Lama fled to India, although resistance continued in other parts of the country for several years. Although he remained a virtual prisoner, the Chinese set the Panchen Lama as a figurehead in Lhasa, claiming that he headed the legitimate Government of Tibet in the absence of the Dalai Lama, the traditional head of the Tibetan government. In 1965, the area that had been under the control of the Dalai Lama's government from the 1910s to 1959 (Ü-Tsang and western Kham) was renamed the Tibet Autonomous Region or TAR. Autonomy provided that head of government would be an ethnic Tibetan; however, de facto power in the TAR is held by the general secretary of the Communist Party, who, as of 2006, has always been a Han Chinese from outside of Tibet. The role of ethnic Tibetans in the higher levels of the TAR Communist Party remains limited.

In 1989. the Panchen Lama died. The Dalai Lama named Gedhun Choekyi Nyima as the 11th Panchen Lama but without confirmation from the Chinese government, while the PRC named another child, Gyancain Norbu. Gyancain Norbu was raised in Beijing and has appeared occasionally on state media. The whereabouts of Gedhun Choekyi Nyima and his family are unknown. It is widely believed that they are imprisoned, while Beijing contends that they are living under a secret identity for protection and privacy.[1]

The Dalai Lama is now seventy-one years old, and when he dies a new child Dalai Lama will, by tradition, have to be found. In 1997, the 14th Dalai Lama indicated that his reincarnation "will definitely not come under Chinese control; it will be outside, in the free world." [2]

List of Dalai Lamas

There have been 14 Dalai Lamas:

	Name	Lifespan	Reign	Tibetan/Wylie	PRC transcription	Other English spelling(s)
.1	Gendun Drup	1391–1474		དྒེ་འདུན་འགྲུབ་ dge ‘dun ‘grub	Gêdün Chub	Gedun Drub, Gedün Drup, Gendun Drup
.2	Gendun Gyatso	1475–1541		དགེ་འདུན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ dge ‘dun rgya mtsho	Gêdün Gyaco	Gedün Gyatso, Gendün Gyatso
3.	Sonam Gyatso	1543–1588	1578–1588	བསོད་ནམས་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ bsod nams rgya mtsho	Soinam Gyaco	Sönam Gyatso
4.	Yonten Gyatso	1589–1616		ཡོན་ཏན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ yon tan rgya mtsho	Yoindain Gyaco	Yontan Gyatso
5.	Lobsang Gyatso	1617–1682	1642–1682	བློ་བཟང་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ blo bzang rgya mtsho	Lobsang Gyaco	Lobzang Gyatso, Lopsang Gyatso
6.	Tsangyang Gyatso	1683–1706	?–1706	ཚང་དབྱངས་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ tshang dbyangs rgya mtsho	Cangyang Gyaco
7.	Kelzang Gyatso	1708–1757	1751–1757	བསྐལ་བཟང་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ bskal bzang rgya mtsho	Gaisang Gyaco	Kelsang Gyatso, Kalsang Gyatso
8.	Jamphel Gyatso	1758–1804	1786–1804	བྱམས་སྤེལ་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ byams spel rgya mtsho	Qambê Gyaco	Jampel Gyatso, Jampal Gyatso
9.	Lungtok Gyatso	1806–1815	(1808–1815)	ལུང་རྟོགས་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ lung rtogs rgya mtsho	Lungdog Gyaco	Lungtog Gyatso
1.0	Tsultrim Gyatso	1816–1837		ཚུལ་ཁྲིམ་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ tshul khrim rgya mtsho	Cüchim Gyaco	Tshültrim Gyatso
1.1	Khendrup Gyatso	1838–1856	1844–1856	མཁས་གྲུབ་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ mkhas grub rgya mtsho	Kaichub Gyaco	Kedrub Gyatso
1.2	Trinley Gyatso	1857–1875		འཕྲིན་ལས་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ ‘phrin las rgya mtsho	Chinlai Gyaco	Trinle Gyatso
13.	Thubten Gyatso	1876–1933		ཐུབ་བསྟན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ thub bstan rgya mtsho	Tubdain Gyaco	Thubtan Gyatso, Thupten Gyatso
14.	Tenzin Gyatso	1935–present	1950–present (currently in exile)	བསྟན་འཛིན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ bstan ‘dzin rgya mtsho	Dainzin Gyaco

Epithets

The title "Dalai Lama" is usually translated as meaning "Ocean of Wisdom." In addition to this title, the Dalai Lama is also called Gyalwa Rinpoche (Rgyal-ba Rin-po-che) meaning "Precious Victor," and Yishin Norbu (Yid-bzhin Nor-bu) meaning "Wish-fulfilling Jewel" the Tibetan language. In English, the words "His Holiness" (HH) are often placed before his title.

Residence

Potala Palace.

Starting with the 5th Dalai Lama and until the 14th Dalai Lama's flight into exile in 1959, the Dalai Lamas resided during winter at the Potala Palace, and in the summer at the Norbulingka palace and park. Both residences are located in Lhasa, Tibet, approximately 3 km apart. In 1959, subsequent to the then ongoing Chinese occupation of Tibet, the 14th Dalai Lama sought refuge within India. The then Indian Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, was instrumental in granting safe refuge to the Dalai Lama and his fellow Tibetans. The Dalai Lama has since been in refuge in Dharamsala, in the state of Himachal Pradesh in northern India, where the Central Tibetan Administration (The Tibetan Government in Exile) is also established. Tibetan refugees have constructed and opened many schools and Buddhist temples in Dharamsala.

Succession

The title "Dalai Lama" is presently granted to each of the spiritual leader's successive incarnations (for example, The 14th Dalai Lama's next incarnation will hold the title "the 15th Dalai Lama").

Upon the death of the Dalai Lama, his monks institute a search for the Lama's reincarnation, or yangsi (yang srid), a small child. Familiarity with the possessions of the previous Dalai Lama is considered the main sign of the reincarnation. The search for the reincarnation typically requires a few years. The reincarnation is then brought to Lhasa to be trained by the other Lamas.

The future of the Dalai Lama

Throne awaiting Dalai Lama's return. Summer residence of 13th Dalai Lama, Nechung, Tibet.

Despite its officially secular stance, the government of the People's Republic of China (PRC) has claimed the power to approve the naming of high reincarnations in Tibet. This decision cites a precedent set by the Qianlong Emperor of the Qing Dynasty, who instituted a system of selecting the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama by means of a lottery that utilised a golden urn with names wrapped in barley balls. Controversially, this precedent was called upon by the PRC to name their own Panchen Lama. The Dalai Lama and the majority of Tibetan Buddhists in exile do not regard this to be the legitimate Panchen Lama. The Dalai Lama has recognized a different child, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, as the reincarnated Panchen Lama. This child and his family have been taken into 'protective custody' according to the PRC, and all attempts by members of the EU parliament and US government to garner guarantees of the family's safety have been denied by the PRC. There is some speculation that with the death of the current Dalai Lama, the People's Republic of China will attempt to direct the selection of a successor, using the authority of their chosen Panchen Lama.

The current Dalai Lama has repeatedly stated that he will never be reborn inside territory controlled by the People's Republic of China, and has occasionally suggested that he might choose to be the last Dalai Lama by not being reborn at all. However, he has also stated that the purpose of his repeated incarnations is to continue unfinished work and, as such, if the situation in Tibet remains unchanged, it is very likely that he will be reborn to finish his work.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Cutler, H. "THE DALAI LAMA: THE MINDFUL MONK This humble man is bridging the gap between Eastern wisdom and Western psychology," Psychology Today, 34, part 3, 34-39, 2009 ISSN 0033-3107

• Goldstein, Melvyn C. The Snow Lion and the Dragon China, Tibet, and the Dalai Lama. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1999 ISBN 9780585087030

• Laird, Thomas, and Bstan-ʼdzin-rgya-mtsho. The Story of Tibet: Conversations with the Dalai Lama. NY: Grove Press, 2006 ISBN 9780802118271

• Marcello, Patricia Cronin. The Dalai Lama: A Biography. Greenwood biographies. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2003 ISBN 9780313322075

• Perez, Louis G. The Dalai Lama. Rourke biographies. Vero Beach, Fla: Rourke Publications, 1993 ISBN 9780866254809

• Piburn, Sidney. The Dalai Lama, a Policy of Kindness: An Anthology of Writings by and About the Dalai Lama. Ithaca, N.Y., USA: Snow Lion Publications, 1990 ISBN 9780937938911

Bibliography

• Beckwith, Christopher I (1983). “The Revolt of 755 in Tibet” Contributions on Tibetan Language, History, and Culture. Ernst Steinkellner and Helmut Tauscher eds. Wiener Studien zur Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde; Heft 1.0 Wien: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien, Universität Wien, pp. 1-16. reprinted in: The History of Tibet. ed. Alex Mckay. London: Routledge Curzon, 2003: 273-285.
• Beckwith, Christopher I (1987). The Tibetan Empire in Central Asia. A History of the Struggle for Great Power among Tibetans, Turks, Arabs, and Chinese during the Early Middle Ages Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-02469-3
• Hilton, Isabel (1999). The Search for the Panchen Lama. New York and London: W. W. Norton and Company. ISBN 0-393-04969-8. 
• Carrington, Michael. "Officers Gentlemen and Thieves: The Looting of Monasteries during the 1903/4 Younghusband Mission to Tibet," Modern Asian Studies 37, 1 (2003), PP 81-109.
• Goldstein, Melvyn C., with the help of Gelek Rimpche. A History of Modern Tibet, 1913-1951: The Demise of the Lamaist State, Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers (1993), hardcover, 898 pages, ISBN 81-215-0582-8; University of California edition (1991), trade paperback, ISBN 0-520-07590-.0
• Norb,u Thubten Jigme and Turnbull, Colin. Tibet: Its History, Religion and People. Reprint: Penguin Books, 1987.
• Petech, Luciano (1988). "The Succession to the Tibetan Throne in 704-5." Orientalia Iosephi Tucci Memoriae Dicata, Serie Orientale Roma 41.3. pp. 1080-1087.
• Richardson, Hugh E. (1965). "How Old was Srong Brtsan Sgampo" Bulletin of Tibetology 2..1 pp. 5-8.
• Richardson, Hugh E. (1988) "The Succession to Lang Darma." Orientalia Iosephi Tucci Memoriae Dicata, Serie Orientale Roma 41.3. pp. 1221-1229
• Shakya, Tsering,The Dragon in the Land of Snows : A History of Modern Tibet Since 1947 Penguin, (2000) paperback, 608 pages, ISBN 0-14-019615-3
• Stein, R. A. 196.2 Tibetan Civilization. First published in French. English translation by J. E. Stapelton Driver. Reprint: Stanford University Press (with minor revisions from 1977 Faber & Faber edition), 1995. ISBN 0-8047-0806-1 (hbk); ISBN 0-8047-0901-7 (sbk).
• Wang Jiawei and Nyima Gyaincain (1997). The Historical Status of China's Tibet. China Intercontinental Press. ISBN 7-80113-304-8. 
• Wylie, Turnell V. (1977) "The First Mongol Conquest of Tibet Reinterpreted" Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 37.1: 103-133.
• Yeshe De Project. 1986. ANCIENT TIBET: Research Materials from The Yeshe De Project. Dharma Publishing. Berkeley. ISBN 0-89800-146-3
• Zuiho Yamaguchi (1996) “The Fiction of King Dar-ma’s persecution of Buddhism” De Dunhuang au Japon: Etudes chinoises et bouddhiques offertes à Michel Soymié. Genève : Librarie Droz S.A.

External links

• The official site of the current Dalai Lama Retrieved Aug. 3, 2007.
• Namgyal - The official site of the current Dalai Lama's personal monastery in Ithaca NY USA Retrieved Aug 3, 2007.
• The 13 Previous Dalai Lamas Retrieved Aug 3, 2007.

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