Dalai Lama (redirected from Dali Llama)

Dalai Lama (dä`lī lä`mə) [Tibetan,=oceanic teacher], title of the leader of Tibetan Buddhism. Believed like his predecessors to be the incarnation of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, 1935–, was installed in 1940. In 1959, following a Tibetan revolt against Chinese rule (see Tibet), he fled into exile. He has traveled widely, pleading the Tibetan cause. Recipient of the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize, he wrote an autobiography, Freedom in Exile (1990).

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Dalai Lama

Head of the dominant Dge-lugs-pa order of Tibetan Buddhism. The first of the line was Dge-'dun-grub-pa (1391–1475), founder of a monastery in central Tibet. His successors were regarded as his reincarnations and, like himself, manifestations of the bodhisattva Avalokitesvara. The second head of the order established the 'Brasspungs monastery near Lhasa as its base, and the third received the title Dalai (“Ocean”) from Altan Khan. The fifth, Ngag-dbang-rgya-mtsho (1617–82), established the supremacy of the Dge-lugs-pa over other orders. The 13th Dalai Lama, Thub-bstan-rgya-mtsho (1875–1933), held temporal and spiritual power after the Chinese were expelled in 1912. The 14th and current Dalai Lama, Bstan-'dzin-rgya-mtsho (b. 1935), was enthroned in 1940 but fled to India in 1959 with a large contingent of followers after a failed revolt against the central government, which had gained control of Tibet in 1950–51. He now lives in exile in Dharmsala, India. He was awarded the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of his proposals for solving world problems.

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Dalai Lama

1. (until 1959) the chief lama and ruler of Tibet

2. born 1935, the 14th holder of this office (1940), who fled to India (1959): Nobel peace prize 1989

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Dalai Lama

attains his position at birth by absorbing the spirit of his dying predecessor. [Buddhism: NCE, 2745 (Tibetan Buddhism)]

See : Reincarnation