Today, 6th July, is the 14th and current Dalai Lama's birthday as well as being one of the greatest spiritual leaders of our time. So Happy Birthday your Holiness. Dalai Lamas are the most important monks of the Gelug school and was both the temporal and spiritual leader of Tibet which I was lucky enough to visit in 2000
During the 1959 Tibetan uprising the Dalai Lama was forced to flee to India, where he currently lives as a refugee and head of the Tibetan Government in Exile.
He has to have permission of the Indian Government everytime he wishes to leave the country but he has since traveled the world, advocating for the welfare of Tibetans, teaching Tibetan Buddhism and talking about the importance of compassion as the source of a happy life.
The Dalai Lama received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, and is known for his advocacy for Tibetans worldwide and his lifelong interest in modern science.
The Dalai Lama’s interest in science and technology dates from his childhood in Lhasa, Tibet, when he was fascinated by mechanical objects like clocks, watches, telescopes, film projectors, clockwork soldiers and motor cars, and loved to repair, disassemble and reassemble them. Once, observing the moon through a telescope as a child, he realised it was a crater-pocked lump of rock and not a heavenly body emitting its own light as Tibetan cosmologists had taught him. He has also said that had he not been brought up as a monk he would probably have been an engineer.
On his first trip to the west in 1973 he asked to visit Cambridge University’s astrophysics department in the UK and he sought out renowned scientists such as Sir Karl Popper, David Bohm and Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, who taught him the basics of science. He has spent so much of his life investigating the interface between Buddhism and science.
The Dalai Lama's appeal is variously ascribed to his charismatic personality, international fascination with Buddhism, his universalist values, international sympathy for the Tibetans, and western sinophobia. In the 1990s, many films were released by the American film industry about Tibet, including biopics of the Dalai Lama. This is attributed to both the Dalai Lama's 1989 Nobel Peace Prize as well as to the euphoria following the Fall of Communism. The most notable films, Kundun and Seven Years in Tibet (both released in 1997). The Dalai Lama has his own pages on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Google Plus.
The Dalai Lama has tried to mobilize international support for Tibetan’s activities. The Dalai Lama has been successful in gaining Western support for himself and the cause of greater Tibetan autonomy or independence, including vocal support from numerous Hollywood celebrities, most notably the actors Richard Gere and Steven Seagal, as well as lawmakers from several major countries. The 14th Dalai Lama is very good friends with Brian Blessed, they share a passion for boxing and even once sparred.
He was formally recognized as the 14th Dalai Lama in a public declaration in 1939 near the town of Bumchen. The ceremony of enthronement took place on 22nd February 1940 in Lhasa. However he did not assume full political power over Tibet until after China’s invasion of Tibet on 17 November 1950. He was then aged 15.
During the 1959 Tibetan uprising, the Dalai Lama fled across the Himalaya on foot to India, where he currently lives as a refugee in Dharamshala.
Around the world, institutions face pressure from China not to accept him. The Chinese consider him a traitor and want to control the search for his re-incarnation when the time comes for the 15th Dalai Lama. Tenzin Gyatso, has already said if he re-incarnates it will not be in a country under Chinese rule.
He travels the world, advocating for the welfare of Tibetans, teaching Tibetan Buddhism, investigating the interface between Buddhism and science and talking about the importance of compassion as the source of a happy life.
The Dalai Lama’s lifelong interest in science and technology dates from his childhood in Lhasa, Tibet, when he was fascinated by mechanical objects like clocks, watches, telescopes, film projectors, clockwork soldiers and motor cars, and loved to repair, disassemble and reassemble them. Once, observing the moon through a telescope as a child, he realised it was a crater-pocked lump of rock and not a heavenly body emitting its own light as Tibetan cosmologists had taught him. He has also said that had he not been brought up as a monk he would probably have been an engineer. On his first trip to the west in 1973 he asked to visit Cambridge University’s astrophysics department in the UK and he sought out renowned scientists such as Sir Karl Popper, David Bohm and Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, who taught him the basics of science.
The Dalai Lama's appeal is variously ascribed to his charismatic personality, international fascination with Buddhism, his universalist values, international sympathy for the Tibetans, and western sinophobia. In the 1990s, many films were released by the American film industry about Tibet, including biopics of the Dalai Lama. This is attributed to both the Dalai Lama's 1989 Nobel Peace Prize as well as to the euphoria following the Fall of Communism. The most notable films, Kundun and Seven Years in Tibet (both released in 1997). The Dalai Lama has his own pages on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
The Dalai Lama has tried to mobilize international support for Tibetan’s activities. The Dalai Lama has been successful in gaining Western support for himself and the cause of greater Tibetan autonomy or independence, including vocal support from numerous Hollywood celebrities, most notably the actors Richard Gere and Steven Seagal, as well as lawmakers from several major countries. The 14th Dalai Lama is very good friends with Brian Blessed, they share a passion for boxing and even once sparred.
He was selected as the re-incarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama in 1937.
His religious name is Tenzin Gyatso, shortened from Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso.
Dalai Lamas are the most important monks of the Gelug school, the newest school of Tibetan Buddhism and was both the temporal and spiritual leader of Tibet and still leads the Tibetan Government in Exile and I was lucky enough to visit his beautiful country in 2000.