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In a faraway place, in the Himalayas, in a small farming village of Taktser in the province of Amdo, North-east Tibet, a
baby boy was born on July 6th 1935. He was the 5th child born to this family of poor farmers. Tibetians were strongly embedded
in Buddhism, a very peaceful and non violent doctrine. They had been spiritually led by thirteen Dalai Lamas ( the holiest
of their kind, and it is the belief that the Dalai Lama speaks for Buddha, the way catholicism attributes this to the Pope.
The first three years of this little boy's life were pretty average, he accompanied his parents to the fields and no
one had any idea of what was yet to come. However at the age of three he kept chanting that he was going to Lhasa, I am going
to Lhasa. This could be attributed to his older brother already having been declared a re-incarnation of a high Lama. Later
it was said that this little boy always sat at the head of the table (which now many say could have been a premonition that
somehow he knew there was something special about him).
On or about this time Tibet was also looking for their 14th Dalai Lama and a search party was sent out to find exactly
the right one. As they passed through Lhamo's village (that was his name at the time, the little boy seemed to recognise them.
They decided to stay and observe him for about a week and without saying a word they left only to return later with some items
belonging to the previous Dalai Lama. Lhamo shouted in glee" these are mine, these are mine" The delegation was
speechless...was this the one they were looking for?
It was not long before the little boy was taken to the monastery in Kumbum. One consoloation to the little one was that
his older brother was already there. He was schooled in the traditions and beliefs of Buddhism and there was no doubt that
the next Dalai Lama had been found . He studied vigorously and all seemed to come to him as if he already knew it......
In 1950 Communist China decided to start invading Tibet, as they all along believed that it was their territory and Tibetian
Buddhism was shaken to it's core. It was then decided to give the boy, who now was a mere 15 year old full reign as their
religious leader. He saw the threat of communism and send delegations out to China to try to come to a peaceful settlement,
and appealed to other countries to intervene, mainly the US and GB .....but it was to no avail. And the delegation that was
sent out to China was duped into signing some documents to now make Tibet part of what they called the Motherland....even
a fake Tibetian seal was used to make them believe that the Tibetian government was in accords with this. And more and more
Chinese troops marched into their land. The Dalai Lama was moved further away. Having been invaded by the PLA, it looked as
if Lhasa was about to tumble, and one of his older brothers was sent to convince him to give in, if not he was instructed
to kill him.......
For the next nine years the very young Dalai Lama did all he could to avoid a full invasion of his beloved country in
a peaceful way, counting on the support of his followers and the strength of his beliefs. Terrible atrocities were committed
against his countrymen, yet the spiritual leader never retaliated in kind. His strict Buddhist beliefs convinced him that
a peaceful resolution would eventually be found...........
It was all to no avail, and the followers of by now "His Holiness The Dalai Lama" as he was known among his
people feared for the safety of their leader. India offered him asylum at the cost of forever being exiled from Tibet. He
was urged and finally accepted the offer, as he himself and his followers believed that merely knowing this man was safe,
they could live with the hope of his still being able to practice his preachings of peace,humility, spirituality, etc.
The Dalai Lama was presented with the Nobel Peace Price in 1989. His acceptance speech explained how we as people are
all dependant on each other, that we must reach out to those in need, even if that means putting our own momentary needs aside.
Our altruistic actions bring about happiness , but they also lessen our own experience of suffering. When we worry more about
the suffering of others, our own are thereby minimimised
By Cherche -d -ame
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