Dalai Lama

Dalai Lama
  • ཏཱ་ལའི་བླ་མ་
  • Tā la'i bla ma
ResidenceMcLeod Ganj, Dharamshala, India
Formation1391
First holderGendün Drubpa, 1st Dalai Lama, posthumously awarded after 1578.
Websitedalailama.com

Dalai Lama (UK: /ˈdæl ˈlɑːmə/, US: /ˈdɑːl/;[1][2] Tibetan: ཏཱ་ལའི་བླ་མ་, Wylie: Tā la'i bla ma [táːlɛː láma]) is a title given by the Tibetan people to the foremost spiritual leader of the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" school of Tibetan Buddhism, the newest and most dominant of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism.[3] The 14th and incumbent Dalai Lama is Tenzin Gyatso, who lives in exile as a refugee in India. The Dalai Lama is also considered to be the successor in a line of tulkus who are believed[2] to be incarnations of Avalokiteśvara,[1] the Bodhisattva of Compassion.[4][5]

Since the time of the 5th Dalai Lama in the 17th century, his personage has always been a symbol of unification of the state of Tibet, where he has represented Buddhist values and traditions.[6] The Dalai Lama was an important figure of the Geluk tradition, which was politically and numerically dominant in Central Tibet, but his religious authority went beyond sectarian boundaries. While he had no formal or institutional role in any of the religious traditions, which were headed by their own high lamas, he was a unifying symbol of the Tibetan state, representing Buddhist values and traditions above any specific school.[7] The traditional function of the Dalai Lama as an ecumenical figure, holding together disparate religious and regional groups, has been taken up by the fourteenth Dalai Lama. He has worked to overcome sectarian and other divisions in the exiled community and has become a symbol of Tibetan nationhood for Tibetans both in Tibet and in exile.[8]

From 1642 until 1705 and from 1750 to the 1950s, the Dalai Lamas or their regents headed the Tibetan government (or Ganden Phodrang) in Lhasa, which governed all or most of the Tibetan Plateau with varying degrees of autonomy.[9] This Tibetan government enjoyed the patronage and protection of firstly Mongol kings of the Khoshut and Dzungar Khanates (1642–1720) and then of the emperors of the Manchu-led Qing dynasty (1720–1912).[9] In 1913, several Tibetan representatives including Agvan Dorzhiev signed a treaty between Tibet and Mongolia, proclaiming mutual recognition and their independence from China. The legitimacy of the treaty and declared independence of Tibet was rejected by both the Republic of China and the People's Republic of China.[10][11] The Dalai Lamas headed the Tibetan government until 1951.

  1. ^ a b "Definition of Dalai Lama in English". Oxford Dictionaries. Archived from the original on 27 July 2013. Retrieved 2 May 2015. The spiritual head of Tibetan Buddhism and, until the establishment of Chinese communist rule, the spiritual and temporal ruler of Tibet. Each Dalai Lama is believed to be the reincarnation of the bodhisattva Avalokitesvara, reappeared in a child when the incumbent Dalai Lama dies
  2. ^ a b "Dalai lama". Dictionary.com. Archived from the original on 26 February 2014. Retrieved 12 March 2014. (formerly) the ruler and chief monk of Tibet, believed to be a reincarnation of Avalokitesvara and sought for among newborn children after the death of the preceding Dalai Lama
  3. ^ Schaik, Sam van. Tibet: A History. Yale University Press 2011, page 129, "Gelug: the newest of the schools of Tibetan Buddhism"
  4. ^ Peter Popham (29 January 2015). "Relentless: The Dalai Lama's Heart of Steel". Newsweek. Archived from the original on 29 April 2015. Retrieved 1 May 2015. His mystical legitimacy – of huge importance to the faithful – stems from the belief that the Dalai Lamas are manifestations of Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva of Compassion
  5. ^ Laird 2006, p. 12.
  6. ^ Woodhead, Linda (2016). Religions in the Modern World. Abingdon: Routledge. p. 94. ISBN 978-0-415-85881-6.
  7. ^ Religions in the Modern World: Traditions and Transformations. Taylor and Francis. Kindle locations 2519–2522.
  8. ^ Cantwell and Kawanami (2016). Religions in the Modern World. Routledge. p. 94. ISBN 978-0-415-85880-9.
  9. ^ a b Smith 1997, pp. 107–149.
  10. ^ Emilian Kavalski (1 April 2016). The Ashgate Research Companion to Chinese Foreign Policy. Routledge. pp. 445–. ISBN 978-1-317-04389-8.
  11. ^ "Udo B. Barkmann - Die Mongolei und die VR China – Wege zur strategischen Partnerschaft (2003–2011)", Geschichte und Gesellschaft des modernen China, Peter Lang, 2016, doi:10.3726/978-3-653-06417-9/36, ISBN 9783631671146