Copyright
© 2000
Team C001515

1935

Overview:

The spiritual leader of Tibet, the Dalai Lama’s infectious personality has attracted many believers to his cause. Advocating world peace, the Dalai Lama has lived the majority of his life in exile, cut off from his people as millions were brutally murdered. His life brings us hope and his teachings help us understand human’s basic goodness. His efforts concerning human rights and peace have made him world reknown. He has received the Wallenberg Award, the Albert Schweitzer Award, and the Nobel Peace Prize.

Country: Tibet

Type of hero: Civil and Political Rights

Attributes: Peace Maker, Pacifist

Biography:

"Respect seems natural when you meet him, but it is not awe. You can talk with him, and laugh with him, and discuss things with him, and although the underlying respect remains it is like being in the presence of a very old and warm friend.” (Roger Hicks and Ngakpa Chogyam, from their biography, Great Ocean)

In 1935 the Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, was born in Tibet. The above quote refers to this man known as, “His Holiness” or the Dalai Lama. Meaning “great ocean of wisdom,” the Dalai Lama is believed to reincarnate himself in a new body after death. After the thirteenth Dalai Lama died various signs were left pointing to where to find his reincarnated body. Through a series of extraordinary events searchers found Tenzin Gyatso as a two-year-old boy and and he soon became the fourteenth Dalai Lama.

Tenzin Gyatso was special even as a child. He was brilliant when it game to debate, studies, mechanics, and virtually everything else. By the time he turned fifteen he was awarded the power and responsibility to direct his country. However, his installation came at a very dreary and ominous hour. Chinese forces were gathering outside Tibet and soon, despite the resistance of Tibetan soldiers, pleas to the United Nations, cries for non-violence, the rugged mountainous terrain and eventually guerilla warfare, the Chinese brutally took over Tibet killing millions of people, swallowing its independence. Many people refer to the Chinese destruction of Tibetan society as genocide. The Dalai lama lost his country by the time he turned sixteen.

The Dalai Lama was exiled to India where he stands as a symbol of hope, strength and purity for his people. His humor, wit, intellect and character warm those around him as he still strives to achieve world peace and freedom for his own people. In India the Tibetan culture is preserved and practiced, in hopes that one day they may return to their homeland.

The Dalai Lama has endured and witnessed man in his most brutal and evil state, as he helplessly watched as his people were slaughtered. However, through it all he still stands strong and lives to give us hope. He understands and preaches that there is by far, more good than evil in this world. The world hears about all the negatives in society, when it needs to be flooded with the positives. Believing in human’s basic goodness, he demonstrates that human beings are better than people are led to believe. A worldwide revolution of peace is within our grasp. The salvation for the human race can be found in the basic goodness in all of us.

Citations & References:

References
Lama, Dalai. Ethics for the New Millennium. New York: Riverhead Books, 1999

Gibb, Christopher. The Dalai Lama. Milwaukee: Gareth Stevens Children’s Books, 1990

"Time 100 The Most Important People of the 20th Century." Time.com http://www.time.com/time/time100/ (June 2000)

Go back to Great Heroes of the Twentieth Century