The Dalai Lama is the reencarnation of the Buddha. When he dies,his soul enter the body of a new born boy, this boy need to be identified by passing traditional tests before becoming the new Dalai Lama.The Dalai Lama is also considered to be the manifestation of the Buddha of Compassion, who chose to reencarnate to serve the people.
The Enthronement ceremony was on February 22 of the 1940, in Lhasa. Lhasa is the capital of the Tibet.
EDUCATION
Dalai Lama began his education when he was 6 years old. When he was 25, in 1959, he finished the Doctorate of Buddhist Philosophy. At 24 years old, he took the preliminary exams on each of the 3 Monastic universities named Drepung, Sera and Ganden. The final exam was in the Jokhang, Lhasa during the anual Monlam Festival of Prayer.The Dalai Lama passed the exams with honors.
POLITICAL CAREER
In 1950, the Dalai Lama was forced to assume full political power, when he was only 16 years old. This crisis was forced by the Chinese communist invasion. In this situation were Chinese were much more than tibetians Dalai Lama could only negotiate and he did.
On 1954 he was invited to Beijing, when he was there, Chinese tried to convince him that it would be much more better if Tibet was on Chinese control.
On 1956 he visited India where he met Nehru but win little help for the Tibetan cause.
On 1959, the Chinese crushed the uprising and the Dalai Lama was forced to fly across the Himalayas.
Dalai Lama inmediately he did a democratic government-in-exile to dedicate to work for the freedom of the Tibet. With the help of the Indian government, he did Schools (English, Hindi and Western style education) along with Tibetan languages and cultures. Then he did hospitals, orfanages, Monasteries, handicrft factories and cultural institutions-he did the begining of a new Tibetian society.
3 UN General Assemblies were passed in 1959, 1961 and 1965 acussing China for “violations of the fundamental human rights of the Tibetan people”.
In his first vsit to the west, he has met many world leaders like the presidents of the United States, France, and Germany, and the Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zeland and also Prince Charles and the King of Norway.
DALAI LAMA´S ADVICES
When you lose, don´t lose the lesson.
Follow the 3 R´s: Respect your self, Respect for others, Responsability for all your actions.
Be gentle with the earth.
Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.
Live a good honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you´ll be able to enjoy it a second time.
A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.
Remember that the best relationship is 1 in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.
DEGREES AND AWARDS
The Dalai Lama´s has received honorary degrees from:
Melbourne University, Melbourne, Australia.
Benares Hindu University, Vanarasi, India.
Carrol College, Waukesha, Wisconsin, U.S.A.
The University of Oriental Studies, Los Angeles, U.S.A.
Seattle University, Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.
Universite de Paris, Nanterre, France.
The awards received by the Dalai Lama´s are:
1989 Nobel peace prize, Oslo, Norway.
1989 Prix de Memoire, Paris, France.
Humanitarian award, World Management Congress, New York.
Raoul Wallenberg Congressional Human rights award, New York.
Dr.Leopold Lucas prize, University of Tubingen, Germany.
Bi-annual award for foundation for freedom and human rights, Berne, Switzerland.
Albert Schweister Humanitarian award, Human behavioural foundation, New York.
Lincoln award, research Institute of America.
Peace Medal, Asian Buddhist Councilfor peace, Ulan Bator, Mongolia.
Ramon Magsaysay award, Manila, The Philipines.
Palketta award, Norway.
VOCABULARY
Dalai:Mongolian word that means “Ocean”.
Lama: Tibetian term that comes from the Indian word “Guru” or “Teacher”.