#history
Dalai Lama @ 88.
His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama
celebrates his birthday on 6 July ( born 1935).
His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, describes himself as a simple Buddhist monk. He is the spiritual leader of Tibet.
He was born in a family of farmers, in a small hamlet located in Taktser, Amdo in northeastern Tibet.
At the age of two, the child, then named Lhamo Dhondup, was recognised as the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso.
The Dalai Lamas are believed to be manifestations of Avalokiteshvara or Chenrezig, the Bodhisattva of Compassion and the patron saint of Tibet. Bodhisattvas are realised beings, who have vowed to be reborn in the world to help humanity and thus attain Budhahood.
He began his monastic education at the age of six. The major subjects included logic, fine arts, Sanskrit grammar, and medicine, but the greatest emphasis was given to Buddhist philosophy, which was divided into further five categories: Prajnaparamita, the perfection of wisdom; Madhyamika, the philosophy of the middle Way;
Vinaya, the canon of monastic discipline; Abidharma, metaphysics; and Pramana, logic and epistemology.
The five minor subjects included poetry, drama, astrology, composition and synonyms.
At 23, he sat for his final examination in Lhasa’s Jokhang Temple, during the annual Great Prayer Festival (Monlam Chenmo) in 1959. He passed with honors and was awarded the Geshe Lharampa degree, equivalent to the highest doctorate in Buddhist philosophy.
In 1954, (after China’s occupation of Tibet in 1950), he went to Beijing and met with Chairman Mao Zedong and other Chinese leaders, including Deng Xiaoping and Chou Enlai.
However in 1959, following the brutal suppression of the Tibetan national uprising in Lhasa by Chinese troops, Dalai Lama was forced to escape into exile. Since then he has been living in Dharamsala, India.
In 1963, he presented a draft constitution for Tibet , followed by a number of reforms to democratise the Tibetan administration. The new constitution was named “The Charter of Tibetans in Exile”.
The charter enshrines freedom of speech, belief, assembly and movement. It also provides detailed guidelines on the functioning of the Tibetan Administration with respect to the Tibetans living in exile.
In 1992, the Central Tibetan Administration published guidelines for the constitution of a future, free Tibet.
In May 1990, the Tibetan Cabinet (Kashag), which until then had been appointed by the Dalai Lama , was dissolved along with the Tenth Assembly of the Tibetan People’s Deputies (the Tibetan parliament in exile).
In the same year, exiled Tibetans living in India and more than 33 other countries, elected 46 members to an expanded Eleventh Tibetan Assembly on a one-person one-vote basis. The Assembly in turn elected the members of a new cabinet.
In September 2001, the Tibetan electorate directly elected the Kalon Tripa, the Chairman of the Cabinet. The Kalon Tripa appointed his own cabinet who then had to be approved by the Tibetan Assembly.
This was the first time in Tibet’s long history, that the people had elected their political leaders. Since the direct election of the Kalon Tripa, the custom by which the Dalai Lamas, through the institution of the Ganden Phodrang, have held temporal as well as spiritual authority in Tibet, has come to an end.
On 21 September 1987, in an address to members of the United States Congress in Washington, DC, Dalai Lama proposed a Five-Point Peace Plan for Tibet as a first step towards a peaceful solution to the Tibetan problem.
Transformation of the whole of Tibet into a zone of peace.
Abandonment of China’s population transfer policy that threatens the very existence of the Tibetans as a people.
Respect for the Tibetan fundamental human rights and democratic freedoms.
Restoration and protection of Tibet’s natural environment and the abandonment of China’s use of Tibet for the production of nuclear weapons and dumping of nuclear waste.
Commencement of earnest negotiations on the future status of Tibet and of relations between the Tibetan and Chinese peoples.
In 1988, he proposed talks between the Chinese and Tibetans leading to a self-governing democratic political entity for all three provinces of Tibet. This entity would be in association with the People’s Republic of China and the Chinese Government would continue to be responsible for Tibet’s foreign policy and defence.
In 1989, Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his non-violent struggle for the liberation of Tibet.
He has received over 150 awards, honorary doctorates, prizes, etc. He has also authored or co-authored more than 110 books.
On 14 March 2011, he wrote to the Assembly of Tibetan People’s Deputies (Tibetan Parliament-in-exile) requesting it to relieve him of his temporal authority, since according to the Charter of the Tibetans in Exile, he was technically still the head of state. He announced that he was ending the custom by which the Dalai Lamas had wielded spiritual and political authority in Tibet.
He intended to resume the status of the first four Dalai Lamas in concerning himself only with spiritual affairs. The formal office and household of the Dalai Lamas, the Gaden Phodrang, would henceforth only fulfill that function.
On 29 May 2011, His Holiness signed the document formally transferring his temporal authority to the democratically elected leader. In so doing he formally put an end to the 368-year old tradition of the Dalai Lamas functioning as both the spiritual and temporal head of Tibet.
He has declared that when he is about ninety years old, he will consult leading Lamas of Tibet’s Buddhist traditions, the Tibetan public, and other concerned people with an interest in Tibetan Buddhism, and assess whether the institution of the Dalai Lama should continue after him.
If it is decided that a Fifteenth Dalai Lama should be recognised, responsibility for doing so will rest primarily on the concerned officers of the Dalai Lama’s Gaden Phodrang Trust.
