The present Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, was born on July 6 1935 in the province of Amdo, northeast Tibet. When he was two years old he was recognized as the reincarnation of the late Thirteenth Dalai Lama, the location of the young child being just as predicted and his body marked in the traditional way. In 1939 he was brought to Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, where he was enthroned in 1940. The Dalai Lama lineage are manifestations of the Bodhisattva of Compassion, Chenrezig.
In 1949 the newly-established communist China invaded Tibet. A year later, His Holiness the Dalai Lama was requested by the Regent, the Cabinet and the National Assembly to assume full political authority though he was only fifteen - three yeas short of traditional majority. For the subsequent nine years, the Dalai Lama strove to achieve peaceful co-existence with the Chinese. However, this proved impossible as the Chinese atrocities kept on mounting,creating ever more disillusionment among Tibetans. Tibetans aired their resentment of Chinese occupation by staging armed, popular uprisings, which spread to the entire nation and finally erupted in an uprising in Lhasa on March 10, 1959.
When the situation became hopeless for Tibet, the Dalai Lama was requested to flee the country in order to carry on the Tibetan struggle from the outside world. Escaping by night and in disguise, he left Lhasa on March 17, 1959, crossing safely into India on March 31, 1959 where he was warmly received and given asylum.
Nearly 80,000 Tibetan refugees managed to follow the Dalai Lama into exile and are now resettled primarily in India, Nepal, Bhutan, Switzerland, the United States and Canada. Seeking both to save his people and the Tibetan culture, the Dalai Lama began a peaceful struggle to preserve Tibet's identity and regain it's independence.
On December 10, 1989 the Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The Nobel Committee emphasized "that the Dalai Lama, in his struggle for the liberation of Tibet,consistently has opposed the use of violence. He has instead advocated peaceful solutions based upon tolerance and mutual respect in order to preserve the historical and cultural heritage of his people. "
