Bstan-'dzin-rgya-mtsho, Dalai Lama XIV

Dates

• Existence: 1935-

Biography

His Holiness the Dalai Lama visited Salve Regina University on November 17, 2005, and made the presentation “A Human Approach to World Peace” to the student body and other members of the Salve Regina community.

Tenzin Gyatso is the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibetan Buddhism, and describes himself as a simple Buddhist monk. He was born Lhamo Dhondrub on July 6, 1935, to a peasant family in the province of Amdo, in a village in northeastern Tibet and recognized as the reincarnation of Thubten Gyatso at a young age. Historically, the Dalai Lama has provided political and religious leadership in Tibet. Following the invasion of the Chinese in Tibet in 1950 and the Tibetan uprising in 1959, the Dalai Lama feared for his life and fled to India, where he currently lives in exile in Dharamsala in northern India. With the permission of the Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, he formed the Tibetan Government in Exile and tens of thousands of Tibetan refugees have followed him to India.

He is considered a man of peace with global recognition, and is the first Dalai Lama to travel to the Western Hemisphere. Through his teachings, he addresses many concerns, including the welfare of the people of Tibet, Buddhist teachings, the environment, women’s rights, and interfaith dialog. In 1989 he received the Nobel Peace Prize for maintaining a policy of nonviolence with the Chinese government.