The Dalai Lama at 80 - archive | World news | The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/world/from-the-archive-blog/2015/j...

The Dalai Lama at 80

Approaching his 80th birthday - and - we look through the archive at Tibets spiritual
leader

The Dalai Lama on a visit to Huy, Belgium in 2006. Photograph: Thierry Roge/Reuters/Corbis

Katy Stoddard
Thursday 2 July 2015 10.42BST

The Dalai Lama, born in 1935, is the spiritual leader of Tibet. Until the 1950s, when
communist China took control, he was also head of the Tibetan government.

The current Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, is the fourteenth incarnation. In 1910, when his
predecessor was deposed by China and ed to India - pre-empting his own fate fty
years on - the Observer detailed the process of reincarnation by which the Dalai Lama is
recognised.

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The Observer, 27 February 1910. Read the full article.

When the thirteenth Dalai Lama died in

December 1933, a Manchester Guardian
editorial explained that he was not dead,
but he has left his white and crimson
palace at Lhasa and a fourteenth
incarnation reigns in his stead.

Tenzin Gyatso was enthroned six years

later, in an impressive ceremony in Lhasa,
though he only formally took his position
as Tibetan ruler aged 15, when China
annexed Tibet.

Having agreed to measures giving China

control over Tibet in 1951, the Dalai Lama
worked under Chinese rule for nearly a
decade, but in March 1959, when a
rebellion broke out, he ed across the
Himalayas to India.

Mao Zedong with the Dalai Lama (right) and Panchen Lama,
1956. Photograph: Bettmann/CORBIS

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The 14th Dalai Lama (third from right on white pony) ees
from Tibet to India, 1959. Photograph: Popperfoto/Getty
Images

Letters between the Dalai Lama and the Chinese commander in Tibet, broadcast by
Peking radio and reprinted in the Manchester Guardian, reveal a leader treading the ne
line of diplomacy; China, for their part, initially accused a reactionary, traitorous clique
of abducting him. A Tibetan government in exile was established in Dharamsala, India
shortly afterwards.

Manchester Guardian, 1 April 1959. Read the letters in full.

It was his escape to India that set the Dalai

Lama on the path to becoming the global
gure we know today, touring Western
countries and lobbying political leaders for
a free Tibet.

On a visit to the UK in 1984, he suggested

he may be the last of his line, calling the
Dalai Lama a man-made institution...
maybe there should be something new, of
benet to all Buddhists. Perhaps some sort
of choice, like the Pope.

The Dalai Lama with his mother in Mussoorie, India, May 1959.
Photograph: AP

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The Observer, 1 July 1984. Read the interview.

In 1989, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize by the committee in Oslo, who cited his
eorts to nd peaceful solutions based upon tolerance and mutual respect. But while
the international community may have recognised him, Tibet remains under Chinese
control.

The Guardian, 6 October 1989. Read the full article.

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Topics
Dalai Lama/From the archive blog
Tibet/Buddhism/Religion/China/blogposts

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