Who is Dalai Lama and why does he live in an exile?

Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, entered India on March 1959 by fleeing apprehended as Chinese soldiers suppressed an attempted rebellion in Tibet.At the age of a young man of around 25 year old at the time, the future must have been bleak.Not many countries were willing to react to the actions of China, thus he had a hard challenge to preserve the traditions of Tibetans and protect them.

But even his position of power stretching well beyond his people dates back decades of his self-exile. Not only does he become the spiritual leader of the Tibetans and a living representative of the hopes of these people to have their state back, but also a world peace symbol and one of the main religious leaders in the world.Daniel won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 due to his lifetime of trying to promote Tibetan autonomy by abhorring the use of violence.Beijing still treats him as a dangerous separatist, even when in personal statements he claimed that his aim was to achieve the autonomy of Tibet, but not the independence.

At last, at the end of the long life he spent in the midst of tense relations of China and Tibet, the Dalai Lama is discoursing on the future.When he attained the age of 90 in June 2025, he assured the world he would be succeeded when he dies thus ending the uncertainty about continuity of his 600-old Buddhist institution.

Child leader

Dalai lama at the age of  9 years 

Tenzin Gyatso, The 14 th Dalai Lama was born on the 6th day of July 1935 in one of the villages near the modern day borders of Tibet.His father was a farmer, and his mother was called Lhamo Dhondub and they had a few other children.He was identified by a search party of Buddhist officials at the age of two years and enthroned before he attained four years old as the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lamas that had proceeded him. He was named Tenzin Gyatso with reference to the monastic name.

He was trained in a monastery and attained Geshe Lharampa Degree which is a doctorate degree in Buddhist philosophy.However, in 1950, aged 15, he would see troops of newly established Communist government of China march into Tibet.Dalai Lama took full powers as head of state as soldiers flooded in.

In May 1951, China formulated a 17 point agreement to incriminate the incorporation of Tibet in China.Next, on 10 March 1959, a general of the Chinese Army invited Dalai Lama to visit performance of the Chinese dance troupe. However, Tibetans had concerns that it could have been a trap to kidnap Dalai Lama and many started to line up in his palace in a bid to protect him.This developed into demonstrations against the intrusion of the Chinese troops in the Tibetan land. The People Liberation Army went by a massive crackdown and thousands are reported to have died.

Several days later the Dalai Lama started flying miles away with the reason that he received divine revelations through his personal oracle to do so. One of those evenings, he disguised himself up as a soldier and got into the crowd. He reached the Indian border with an entourage in the gruelling 15-days trek across the Himalayas.Asylum was provided by the Indian government and he later on would live in Dharamshala in the northern part of India where the Tibetan government-in-exile went ahead to reside.Dalai Lama was accompanied by the emerging population of 80,000 Tibetans, who mostly moved in the same region.

'Middle way'

Dalai lama 1956 in new delhi

The Dalai Lama chose the mission of attempting to save the culture of the Tibetan people and publicize their struggle on the international arena when he went into exile.He urged the United Nations as well as told the General Assembly to use resolutions in the years 1959, 1961 and 1965 demanding the safety of the Tibetan people.A new approach promoted by Dalai Lama is the so-called middle way to the solution of the Tibetan status- real self-government of the Tibet in China.

Later in 1987, the Dalai Lama submitted a plan of five-point proposal and in that, he suggested making Tibet a zone of peace.However, it did not make him withdraw his stand of peaceful struggle and in 1989 he won the Nobel Peace Prize.His policy of non-violence was commended by the committee which described it as the more impressive when it is looked at against the sufferings to which the Tibetan people were thus subjected.

He has encountered numerous political and religious leaders in the world he has met over the decades. He has paid tributes to the late Pope John Paul and collaborated in a book with Archbishop Desmond Tutu. In his path he has been endorsed by the Hollywood big names that includes Richard Gere, Martin Scorsese and Lady Gaga. However, non-violence philosophy that earned Dalai Lama an enlightenment in the international community is a point of frustration to some Tibetans as they feel Dalai Lama has been too lenient towards Beijing.In 2008 dozens of people were slaughtered (rough estimates were made by rights groups) when riots erupted in Lhasa, over the Chinese treatment towards the Tibetans.

There are also other moments where Dalai Lama has been of international controversy mostly in 2023 when a video went viral where he asked a kid to suck his tongue. The spiritual leader regularly jokes with people and in a casual manner, his office added, and the Dalai Lama apologised to the participant of the incident.

The question of succession

Traditionally, Dalai Lamas are the political and also spiritual leaders of the Tibetans. However in March 2011, the current Dalai Lama was replaced by a democratically elected government-in-exile who relinquished his political powers.Of late years, now he is older, now he has slight health problems, there is a steadily increasing nervousness on the question of succession an d consequently of the cause of exiled Tibetans of recovering their country. Such unease increased after the Dalai Lama hinted that reincarnation may not take place and it is the choice of Tibetans to make.

However when he was 90 years old he abducted the matter forever. He stated in a statement that institution of Dalai Lama would continue after many requests and feedbacks.His critics in some quarters have viewed his words as a warning to Beijing that his authority is by the consent of the will as opposed to the take over of the Tibetan land by China.

He has also added that his office was the one authorised to identify the future reincarnation and that of this concern, no one has any other powers of interference saying that; there are people who have no such authority to interfere in this matter, the clear reminder to China, which had asserted that only it has the mandate, on the issue of succession.

Beijing on its part responded to this by again reminding that the successor of the Dalai Lama will be subject to its approval. Dalai Lama has already said that his successor will be born in the free world which is outside China. But who will be that individual is not known.