Tenzin Gyatso - the 14th Dalai Lama

Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

Over the past few decades, there have been many political problems in Tibet. This can be attributed to the ongoing problem between Tibet and China. Tibet had previously, for many years, been faced with occupation by the forces of the People's Republic of China in their land. This was very alarming to many people, including the highly respected Dalai Lama of Tibet. The Dalai Lama has been a very influential person in Tibet's history and many of the decisions he has made have directly affected the outcome of certain situations pertaining to the relationship between Tibet and China.

The Dalai Lama, in Tibetan Buddhism, is a lineage of reborn magistrates which traces all the way back to the year 1391. Each time an old Dalai Lama passes away, a new one is chosen. Starting during the 17th century, the Dalai Lama was named head of the Tibetan government, managing a large portion of the country from its capital, Lhasa. The Dalai Lama is considered the supreme head of Tibetan Buddhism, and many leaders consider the Dalai Lama to be the highest lama of the Tibetan traditions. Upon the death of the previous Dalai Lama, his monks institute a search for the Dalai Lama's reincarnation as a small child. The monks take much into consideration and conduct very in depth searches to make their finds as accurate as possible. Familiarity with the possessions owned by the previous Dalai Lama is considered the main sign of the reincarnation.

The current Dalai Lama was born as Lhamo Thondup, the son of Choekyong and Diki Tsering. The monks began searching for him shortly after the thirteenth Dalai Lama passed away. A search party was sent out towards the northeast region after the head on the embalmed body of the thirteenth Dalai Lama had mysteriously turned to face the northeast. The Dalai Lama was two at the time of the search. After extensive searching, the monks found the house of the current Dalai Lama. They analyzed him thoroughly and after he passed certain tests, they decided he was the next Dalai Lama.

The Dalai Lama, as the previous ones chosen before him had done, began his monastic education at the young age of six. During his adolescent years, he was very unhappy. He missed his family very much and did not experience what would be considered a "normal childhood". However, the person in charge of him [the Regent] let him sneak away to spend times with his parents, choosing to ignore these excursions.

By the time the Dalai Lama was fifteen years old, he was being considered the spiritual and temporal leader of Tibet. He was then invested with full powers as head of the state of Tibet and enthroned as temporal leader of Tibet after there was a large threat from communist China. The following years, he set up numerous delegations and negotiations with the Chinese. However, Tibetan armed resistance began growing as the threat of the People's Republic of China overtaking Tibet became more prevalent.

Tibet had always been seen as its own sovereign state. The Government of Tibet charged taxes, issued its own currency, ran its postal system, issued postage stamps, commanded Tibet's small army, and generally conducted all affairs of government.. Although the system worked perfectly for the Tibetans, it was an ancient form of

government that was in need of reform in order for Tibet to keep pace with the great political, social and economic changes that were taking place in the world. The People's Republic of China thought they were the way to reform Tibet.

The People's Republic of China was established after the Chinese Civil War ended in 1949 with the Communist party in control of China. Mao Zedong started the PRC, declaring that "the Chinese people have stood up". Since then, the PRC has often been regarded as authoritarian, communist, and socialist. They place heavy restrictions on their people such as restrictions on the internet, press, freedom of assembly, freedom of movement, freedom of reproductive rights, and religion. China's current president is Hu Jintao.

Eventually, an army of the People's Republic of China entered the territory controlled by the Tibetan administration and easily broke through the weak, Tibetan defenders. It was after this incident that the Dalai Lama sent a delegation to Beijing in hopes of making peaceful negotiations between Tibet and China. This was around the time when the Seventeen Point Agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet was established. It was an agreement between the Central People's Government and the Local Government of Tibet. It affirmed Chinese sovereignty over Tibet and was signed and sealed, under the People's Republic Administration military pressure, in Beijing on May 23, 1951. [This agreement was later renounced after the Dalai Lama fled into exile in 1959.]

China allegedly claims that its rule over Tibet goes back to events that occurred hundreds of years ago during the height of the Mongol imperial expansion. The government of the PRC claims that the Tibetan government did almost nothing to improve Tibet's material and political standard of living during its rule. They saw their overtake of Tibet as a helpful thing benefiting Tibet in the long run. The Chinese Communist Government claims it has a right to "ownership" of Tibet. Tibet, however, strongly disagrees. They say that the serfs [peasants] and their masters only formed a small part of Tibet and they argued that Tibet would have eventually modernized itself over time without China's intervention. The Dalai Lama does acknowledge, however, that they "paid too little attention to technological and economic development". China's overtake, however, was not the answer. Tibet even had other governments, such as the Indian and British Government, on their side as they rallied in support of Tibet, protesting against the PRC.

During this time, there were remarks and suspicion that China was planning to kill the Dalai Lama because of his opposition towards China and the influence he had over the Tibetans. Consequently, he was forced to flee Tibet and go into exile in neighboring Dharamsala, India on March 17, 1959. He disguised himself in layman's clothing, and began his dangerous, month long journey over the Himalayas to India where he could then set up his headquarters. After he left, over 100,000 impoverished refugees followed the Dalai Lama. This shows just how important the Dalai Lama was to Tibet and how influential he really was.

The Dalai Lama rehabilitated the Tibetan refugees who had followed him into India with agricultural settlements. He created a Tibetan educational system and supported many monasteries and nunneries that worked to preserve Tibetan Buddhist teachings