 "Dalai Lama is set to celebrate his 90th birthday on July 6. File image/AP")
The Dalai Lama is set to celebrate his 90th birthday on July 6 (Sunday). Buddhist followers consider him to be the 14th reincarnation of the first spiritual leader, Avalokiteshvara, who was born in 1391.
The Tibetan spiritual leader was recognised as the reincarnation of his predecessor at the age of two and formally enthroned in 1940. A decade on China took control of the region and the Dalai Lama fled to India.
Even after years of exile from Tibet, he has been championing greater autonomy for Tibet . He supports the “Middle Way”, which seeks meaningful autonomy within the People’s Republic of China. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 for his peaceful efforts.
The Dalai Lama recently reaffirmed the continuation of his institution after his passing, explicitly stating that only the Gaden Phodrang Trust, his official office, possesses the authority to recognise his future reincarnation. This declaration sends a clear message to China, which claims the right to control the succession.
As his 90th birthday approaches and questions surrounding his succession have drawn global attention, here are some key dates in the life of the leader.
1935: Born to a farming family
Lhamo Thondup was born to a farming family in the rural village of Taktser on July 6, 1935, more than a decade before the Communist Party established the People’s Republic of China.
Situated on a high-altitude plateau, dubbed by some the “roof of the world”, Tibet has alternated over the centuries between independence and control by China.
At the time, Tibet was largely autonomous, after shaking off both the grip of China’s Qing dynasty and a British invasion.
1937: The 14th reincarnation
He was just two when Buddhist monks in disguise arrived at his family home searching for the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama, who had died four years earlier.
The monks are convinced they have found the right boy when he asked for prayer beads that had belonged to his predecessor.
In 1940, he was enthroned as Tibet’s leader, taking the monastic name Tenzin Gyatso.
1950: China takes control
The Chinese army poured into Tibet, crushing a ramshackle resistance. Beijing said it “peacefully liberated” the rugged plateau.
1954: Meets Mao
He visited Beijing and met Mao Zedong, who he said told him that “religion is poison”.
1959: Flees to India
The Dalai Lama fled Lhasa after China deployed troops in the region to crush a popular uprising. Too sick to ride a horse, he crossed the snowy mountain passes into India on the back of a dzomo, a cow-yak hybrid.
India allowed the establishment of a Tibetan government-in-exile in its northern town of Dharamsala. Beijing called him a “wolf in monk’s robes”.
1967: Launches global campaign
The leader visited Japan and Thailand, the first stops on a globetrotting campaign to promote his cause, hobnobbing with world leaders and Hollywood stars.
China’s Cultural Revolution of 1966-76 devastated Tibet.
1988: ‘Middle Way’
The Dalai Lama abandoned demands for Tibetan independence, advocating instead for the “Middle Way” approach for greater autonomy. China continued to call him a separatist.
1989: Nobel Peace Prize
He received the Nobel Peace Prize for advocating solutions based “upon tolerance and mutual respect”.
Beijing, which months earlier had crushed large-scale demonstrations in Lhasa calling for independence, condemned the award as “preposterous”.
2011: Political retirement
He stepped down as political head of Tibet’s exiled government to make way for a democratically elected leader.
Today: Monastic life
He maintains a rigorous monastic life, rising before dawn for prayers. “I always consider myself a simple Buddhist monk,” he wrote on his website. “I feel that is the real me.”
With inputs from AFP