The Dalai Lama, a tireless advocate for Tibet and its people

By Krishna N. Das

Dharamshala, Dalai Lama, the spiritual president of Tibet Buddhism, called himself a simple monk, but for more than 60 years, he has managed to keep the cause of people in the light of international spotlight.

14. Tenzin Gyatso, Dalai Lama, fled to exile with thousands of other Tibetans in India after an unsuccessful uprising against the Chinese administration in 1959. Since then, he has defended a “middle way” for the people of Tibet to seek autonomy and religious freedom, and won the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts.

As he met the scores of the world leaders, he inspired millions of life views such as cheerful tendency and “be as kind as possible as possible. It is always possible”.

But his popularity disturbs China, who sees him as a dangerous separatist, a former communist party boss describes him as a “jackal” and has the “heart of a monster”.

Dalai Lama is 90 years of age on Sunday, especially an important birthday, then marked that he could say more about a potential successor. The Tibetan tradition argues that the spirit of a senior Buddhist monk is reincarne in the body of a child after his death.

In his book “Silent Sesler” published earlier this year, Tibetans said that he wanted to continue after the death of the Dalai Lama institution worldwide and that his successor would be born as the “Free World”, which he defined as China.

The explanations were the strongest in terms of the possibility of successor. In previous years, he said that his successor might be a girl and may not be successor.

However, he said that the successors of China will not be respected by the successors of the foreign governments who pressed him.

Exile flight

In 1935, Dalai Lama was born to Lhamo Dhondup to a family of buckwheat and barley farmers in Qinghai state of Northwest China. At the age of two, he was accepted by a search party as the 14th reincarnation of Tibet’s spiritual and temporal leader after determining his predecessor’s belongings.

In 1950, China seized the control of Tibet, which was called “a peaceful salvation”, and the young Dalai Lama soon traveled to Beijing to meet Mao Zedong and other Chinese leaders. Nine years later, he feared that Dalai Lama could be kidnapped, fueled a great rebellion.

The subsequent pressure of the Chinese army forced him to escape from the palace in Lhasa, where his predecessors had absolute power.

Dalai Lama settled in Dharamshala, a town where he lived in a compound with the green hills and the mountains with snow lids and the bells, and fled to India. There, he opened his government in exile to ordinary Tibetans with an elected parliament.

He was disappointed with how little he earned from his efforts to interact with Beijing, and in 1988 he gave up looking for full independence from China and instead he would seek cultural and religious autonomy in China.

In 2011, Dalai Lama announced that he would give up his political role by delivering these responsibilities to a elected leader for the Tibetan government.

However, it continues to be active, and these days, Dalai Lama, covered with traditional burgundy and saffron dresses, continues to receive a constant flow of visitors.

He had a series of health problems, including knee surgery and difficulty walks. Nevertheless, it is waiting to live for a long time.

“I can live 110 years according to my dream,” he told Reuters in December.

(Reporting by Krishna DAS; Additional Reporting by Tanvi Mehta; Writing by Edwina Gibbs;