Tag: Dalai Lama

Dalai Lama (UK: , US: ; 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. The 14th and incumbent Dalai Lama is Tenzin Gyatso, who lives in exile as a refugee in India. The Dalai Lama is considered to be the successor in a line of tulkus who are believed to be incarnations of Avalokiteśvara, the Bodhisattva of Compassion.

Since the time of the 5th Dalai Lama in the 17th century, the Dalai Lama has been a symbol of unification of the state of Tibet. The Dalai Lama was an important figure of the Geluk tradition, which was dominant in Central Tibet, but his religious authority went beyond sectarian boundaries, representing Buddhist values and traditions above any specific school. The traditional function of the Dalai Lama as an ecumenical figure has been taken up by the fourteenth Dalai Lama, who 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.

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. This Tibetan government enjoyed the patronage and protection of Mongol kings of the Khoshut and Dzungar Khanates (1642–1720) and then the emperors of the Manchu-led Qing dynasty (1720–1912). 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. The Dalai Lamas headed the Tibetan government until 1951.