Dalai Lama (redirected from Sku-mdun)

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

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Dalai Lama

the title of the high priest of Lamaism in Tibet. The institution of the Dalai Lama originated at the beginning of the 15th century, when Lamaism was established and a unique feudal-theocratic form of government was founded. One of the dogmas of Lamaism was the principle of the reincarnation of a soul, according to which the Dalai Lama does not die but is reincarnated in a child born at the moment the Dalai Lama dies. In accordance with this dogma, the Dalai Lama was chosen by an established ritual from among Tibetan boys born immediately after the death of the previous Dalai Lama.

On coming of age, the Dalai Lama became not only the spiritual but also the secular ruler of Tibet. However, he often was in fact only an obedient instrument in the hands of his mentors—representatives of feudal-theocratic forces. Tibetan high priests began to bear the title Dalai Lama in the 16th century. The last (14th) Dalai Lama, Jetsun Jampel Ngawang Lhasang Yishey Tensing Gyatsa (born 1935), cooperated at first with the government of the People’s Republic of China, but after the armed rebellion against Chinese rule in Tibet in 1959 he emigrated to India.

B. P. GUREVICH