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Facts about Dalai Lama
1 – Dalai Lama is a Nobel Peace Prize winner who was born on July 6, 1935 in the Tibetan region of Amdo.
2 – His father’s name was Taktser Rinpoche and his mother’s name was Diki Tsering.
3 – When he was four years old, he became the leader of Tibet after China invaded it in 1950.
4 – In 1959, he escaped to India with 80,000 followers and has been living there ever since.
5 – He has authored more than 150 books on Tibetan Buddhism and other topics including science, art, history, philosophy and children’s stories.
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6 – The Dalai Lama is the spiritual leader of Tibet.
7 – His name means “Ocean of Wisdom”.
8 – He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 for his non-violent struggle for human rights in Tibet.
9 – He has been exiled from Tibet since 1959 due to China’s invasion of Tibet.
10 – After he won the Nobel prize, he used it to establish a program called “The International Campaign for Tibet” which supports human rights and democracy for all people around the world.
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11 – His real name was Lhamo Thondup and in 1950, at the age of 15, he formally assumed his duties as Tibet’s head of state.
12 – Tibetan Buddhists believe that the current Dalai Lama is an incarnation of Avalokiteshvara or Chenrezig (the Bodhisattva of Compassion) and will be reborn after death to continue guiding sentient beings on earth.
13 – His full title is “His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso, Holy Lord from Lhamo Thondup.”
14 – His first language was Amdo Tibetan but he also speaks a little, Hindi, English and Chinese.
15 – He was exiled from Tibet to northern India (1959) by the Chinese government after he led an uprising against them.
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16 – He has been a buddhist monk since the age of six.
17 – He has traveled to over 67 countries and met with world leaders such as president Jimmy Carter, Pope John Paul II, and Nicaragua’s president Sandinista Joseph Ortega.
He has met with many world leaders including U Thant (Secretary General of United Nations), Richard Nixon, Margaret Thatcher, David Cameron (Prime Minister of UK) and Barack Obama during his exile period from 1959.
18 – He has been a vegetarian since age 3 and does not drink alcohol or smoke cigarettes.
19 – As a child, he studied Buddhism and Chinese classics at a Buddhist seminary in Lhasa.
20 – His current residence is Dharamsala, India where he oversees Tibetan Buddhism’s global organization – Central Tibetan Administration (CTA).
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21 – He was born in 1935 in a small village called Takster, located on the Tibetan plateau.
22 – He has been awarded honorary doctorates from universities around the world including Harvard University, Oxford University, Tokyo University and more.
23 – His life motto is “Be kind whenever possible.”
24 – In 1989, he was awarded an honorary Canadian citizenship.
25 – Now Dalai Lama spends most of his time teaching Buddhism around the world and advocating for human rights in Tibet.
