Dalai Lama

Dalai Lama. The office of temporal and spiritual leadership of the Tibetan peoples, of which the present holder, Tenzin Gyatso (Bstan-ʾdzinrgya-mtsho) is the fourteenth. The history of the office begins with Gendun Drub (Dge-ʾdun-grub-pa, 1391–1475), the third successor of Tsong Khapa as head of the Geluk school. Gendun Drub was the first member of the Geluk to adopt the tulku system of reincarnating lamas. His successor was Gendun Gyatso, whose own successor Sonam Gyatso (1543–88) accepted an invitation to renew the Tibetan-Mongolian priest–patron relationship. In a respectful exchange by Lake Kokonor in 1578, Altan Khan gave Sonam Gyatso the Mongolian title ‘Ta le’ (Ocean [of Wisdom]) Lama, which, retrospectively applied to his two predecessors, made Gendun Drub the first ‘Ta le’ Lama (‘Dalai’ being a W. transcription).

The current Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, has based himself in Dharamsala, India, from where he has become well-known internationally, and been styled a ‘god-king’ by the Western press. This potentially misleading term stems from the Tibetan consideration of eminent beings as emanations of Buddhas or bodhisattvas, and the Dalai Lama in particular as an emanation of Avalokiteśvara, the bodhisattva of compassion. Among Tibetans, he is more commonly called ‘Gyalwa Rinpoche’ (Precious Eminence), or simply ‘Kundun’ (Presence). An active statesman, Tenzin Gyatso continues to negotiate improved conditions for his people and terms for his own return, and has overseen the transformation of the previous theocratic government into a democratically elected autonomous body (albeit in exile). In 1989 he received the Nobel Peace Prize for his adherence to the Buddhist principle of nonviolence in the Tibetan struggle, although in the 1990s a wing of the Tibetan Youth Congress advocating armed resistance has become more vocal.