| When asked who he is the Dalai Lama will tell you he | | | | makes more sense, practically and spiritually, to |
| is "just a human being...who chooses to be a Buddhist | | | | develop instead respect and compassion for them. |
| monk." But for the Tibetan people he is the 14th | | | | Perhaps this seemingly superhuman generosity of |
| re-incarnation of Avalokiteshvara, the Boddhisatva of | | | | spirit shouldn't surprise us, considering that his spiritual |
| Compassion. The exiled spiritual and political leader of | | | | training in altruism began while he was still an infant. |
| Tibet, he is sometimes referred to as a god-king, or | | | | Born Lhamo Dhondrup, in a remote Tibetan village, he |
| a living Buddha. | | | | was a normal two year old when a search party of |
| Whatever his title, Tenzin Gyatso, the Dalai Lama, is | | | | high officials recognized him as the re-incarnation of |
| clearly his people's heart and soul. One young Tibetan | | | | the 13th Dalai Lama, the highest political and spiritual |
| refugee tells of falling down an icy Himalayan slope | | | | authority in Tibet. Though the boy had never before |
| during his 1995 escape from Tibet. Hearing his | | | | seen the leader of the party, a friend of the 13th |
| terrified companion's cries of "Dalai Lama...Dalai Lama" | | | | Dalai Lama, from Sera Monastery, he recognized him, |
| echoing behind him, he says that "My friend thought I | | | | calling him "Sera lama, Sera lama." A few days later, |
| was dying, so he was praying for me" by calling His | | | | they gave him the traditional test of choosing |
| Holiness' name. | | | | objects belonging to the previous Dalai Lama from |
| Before Mao Tse Tung's Communist China occupied | | | | similar items which did not. In every case, the child |
| Tibet in 1959, the young Dalai Lama governed an | | | | correctly identified the 13th Dalai Lama's things, |
| independent nation the size of Western Europe. Only | | | | saying, "It's mine. It's mine." Separated from his family |
| 24 years old, the troubled monk fled, in disguise, into | | | | a few years later, he was taken to Lhasa and spent |
| India days before the Chinese bombed his summer | | | | a disciplined and lonely youth in the vast Potala Palace |
| palace in Lhasa, the Tibetan capital. Then Indian Prime | | | | in Lhasa, undergoing rigorous training in matters of |
| Minister Nehru granted tracts of land for the | | | | both state and spirituality. |
| homeless leader and the 80,000 Tibetans who had | | | | Yet for all the isolation, austerity, premature |
| followed him into exile. Grateful for the shelter from | | | | responsibilities, and suffering he has endured, the Dalai |
| Mao's brutally repressive troops, the Tibetans | | | | Lama is a remarkably jolly and unembittered man. As |
| continued, however, to suffer in India. Thousands fell | | | | Michael Goodman reported during His Holiness' first US |
| ill and died from malaria and dysentery, their bodies | | | | visit, "head tilted back and eyes squeezed shut, he |
| unable to cope with the extreme change in climate | | | | bursts into a gale of laughter...Like most Tibetans he |
| between Tibet's cold, dry high-altitudes and India's | | | | is gifted with a keen sense of humor, and when he |
| low-lying heat and humidity. Under His Holiness' | | | | laughs his entire body takes part. He has a wonderful, |
| guidance, the Tibetan community gradually began to | | | | unembarrassed laugh that begins as a deep-throated |
| thrive in India, becoming one of the world's few | | | | roar and fades away on a high pitch, as if all his |
| "successful" refugee communities. | | | | previous thirteen incarnations were joining in with him. |
| Throughout the 37 years in exile the Dalai Lama has | | | | That he is able to laugh in the face of adversity after |
| fought a David and Goliath battle for Tibetan | | | | all he has experienced during the past three decades, |
| independence against China. The incomparable dignity | | | | suggests that he is a man who has found inner |
| and grace of his untiring efforts to promote a | | | | peace." |
| peaceful resolution to the problem was rewarded | | | | And despite the fact that his Tibetan government in |
| when he won the 1989 Nobel Prize for Peace. | | | | exile toils unrecognized by any other nation except |
| Remarkably, the Dalai Lama bears virtually no hard | | | | the Czech Republic, and that he wields no worldly |
| feelings for his Chinese enemies. When asked if he | | | | power, he is revered by growing thousands around |
| hates the Chinese, he inevitably responds "no, not | | | | the world as that rarest of beings, a genuinely wise |
| really," or "almost not." He insists that there is no | | | | and good man whose "true religion," as he sometimes |
| point in developing hatred for the Chinese, and that it | | | | says, "is kindness. |