January 22: On This Day in World History … briefly
Historically the Dalai Lamas or their regents held political and religious leadership over Tibet from Lhasa with varying degrees of influence depending on the regions of Tibet and periods of history.
1940: Five-year old is the new Dalai Lama
A five-year old boy was identified in Llasa as the 14th Dalai Lama – spiritual and temporal ruler of Tibet, with a regent and council of ministers to guide him. Tenzin Gyatso was born in north-eastern Tibet on June 6, 1935, the very day his predecessor died. According to Tibetan belief this was no mere coincidence – Dalai Lamas are held to be the reincarnation of predecessors, in an unbroken line stretching back 544 years.
Lhasa’s wise men located young Tenzin in 1938 and administered the time-honoured tests: the three-year old little boy had to choose various objects that had belonged to his predecessor from a group of similar objects. Tenzin picked them all out – without hesitation.
He eventually assumed full temporal (political) duties on November 17, 1950, at the age of 15, after the People’s Republic of China’s incorporation of Tibet. The Gelug school’s government administered an area roughly corresponding to the Tibet Autonomous Region, just as the nascent PRC wished to assert control over it.
During the 1959 Tibetan uprising, the Dalai Lama fled to India, where he currently lives as a refugee. He has traveled the world and has spoken about the welfare of Tibetans, environment, economics, women’s rights, nonviolence, interfaith dialogue, physics, astronomy, Buddhism and science, cognitive neuroscience, reproductive health, and sexuality, along with various topics of Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhist teachings.
A recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, the US Congressional Gold Medal in 2006, Time magazine named him one of the ‘Children of Mahatma Gandhi’ and his spiritual heir to nonviolence.
Most notable historic snippets or facts extracted from the book ‘On This Day’ first published in 1992 by Octopus Publishing Group Ltd, London, as well as additional supplementary information extracted from Wikipedia.
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