The Dalai Lama

The first Dalai Lama was born Pema Dorje in 1391. His parents were nomads, who kept sheep and goats and lived in tents. His father died when he was seven years old, and as his mother was unable to support him, Pema Dorje was sent to a monastery. Here he took the name Gendun Drup. He received a first–class education, and proved to be an exceptionally gifted pupil.

In 1415, when he would have been around 24 years old, Gendun Drup met Tsongkhapa, founder of the Buddhist sect known as the Gelugpa or Yellow Hat, and became his student. Tsongkhapa died only four years later, and in 1438, following the death of his successor, Khedrub Je, Gendun Drup became the leader of the Gelugpa. He became the single most important lama in Tibet, celebrated and revered throughout Central Asia. Under his influence the Gelugpa school went from strength to strength.

The Gelupga rejected the Tibetan tulku system, under which a reincarnate custodian of a specific lineage of teachings is given empowerments and trained from a young age by students of his or her predecessor. But not long after Gendun Drup died (in 1474), a three–year–old boy in south–central Tibet named Sangyey Pel, whose father was a well–known tantric practitioner of the Nyingma school – the oldest of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism – declared himself to be Gendun Drup. He asked to be 'taken home' to Tashilhunpo (the monastery where the previous Gendun Drup had lived). He spoke in mystical verses, quoted classical texts from memory, and said he was Dromtönpa (an 11th–century incarnation of the lineage that would later come to be known as Dalai Lamas). When he met disciples of the late Gendun Drup, he greeted them by name. The Gelugpa elders had no choice but to break with tradition and recognise Sangyey Pel as the tulku of Gendun Drup.

By now he was eight years old. His father continued to train him in the family Nyingma lineages until he was twelve, when he was installed at Tashilhunpo as Gendun Drup's incarnation, ordained, enthroned and renamed Gendun Gyatso Palzangpo. He spent his winters in Lhasa, but for the rest of the year he travelled widely, studying with Buddhist masters and teaching both monks and lay people.

In 1509 he moved to southern Tibet to build Chokorgyel Monastery near the 'Oracle Lake', Lhamo Latso. The monastery was completed in 1511, and in that year Gendun Gyatso saw visions in the lake and 'empowered' it to impart clues to help identify incarnate lamas. All future Dalai Lamas were found with the help of these visions.

By now widely regarded as one of Tibet's greatest saints and scholars, Gendun Gyatso was invited back to Tashilhunpo. On his return in 1512, he was given the residence built for Gendun Drup, to be occupied later by the Panchen Lamas. He was made abbot of Tashilhunpo and stayed there teaching in Tsang for nine months.

Gendun Gyatso died in 1542, at the age of 67. The Third Dalai Lama was born the following year in Tolung, near Lhasa, as predicted by his predecessor. Unlike his two predecessors, he came from a noble family. Claiming he was Gendun Gyatso, and readily recalling events from his previous life, he was recognised as the incarnation, named Sonam Gyatso, and installed at Drepung. There he is said to have quickly excelled his teachers in knowledge and wisdom, and developed extraordinary powers.

It was Sonam Gyatso who first received the title Dalai Lama, meaning 'ocean of wisdom', from the Mongolian king Altan Khan. He was the first Dalai Lama to be called by that title in his lifetime. The personal Tibetan name Gyatso, which had been taken by the second and third Dalai Lamas, also means 'ocean'; it has also been taken by every Dalai Lama up to the present day.

The current Dalai Lama is the 14th in the lineage. Born in 1935, on a straw mat in a cowshed in a remote part of Tibet, he was one of sixteen children in a farming family. His birth name is Lhamo Dhondup; he was recognized as the Dalai Lama at the age of three and given the religious name Tenzin Gyatso. In 1950, when he was 15 years old, Tibet was invaded by China. For nine years the 14th Dalai Lama attempted to negotiate with the Chinese to save the Tibetan people from Chinese rule, but at the outset of the 1959 Tibetan uprising, fearing for his life, he and his retinue fled Tibet with the help of the CIA's Special Activities Division. They crossed into India on 30 March 1959, and reached Tezpur in Assam on 18 April. He has never been allowed to return to Tibet.

Tenzin Gyatso established a Tibetan government in exile in the Indian city of Dharamshala, in the western Himalayas. In some ways his exile has been to the world's benefit, since he has spent his life bringing a message of peace and compassion to the world.

The 14th Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989. In 2011 he absolved himself of political power, but he is still the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism. Future generations are likely to regard him in the same light as the greatest of his predecessors, for his contributions to spreading the message of Tibetan Buddhism to the world.

In 2013, in a Harris Poll of 7,245 adults across the United States and the five largest European countries, the Dalai Lama was tied with President Barack Obama with the highest levels of popularity of all world leaders (78%). The only leader that came close to these two was Pope Francis, and in the United States alone the Dalai Lama topped the poll over Obama by 13 percentage points.