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In Tibetan Buddhism, the successive Dalai Lamas form a lineage of allegedly reborn (tulku)
magistrates which traces back to 1391. They are of the Gelug sect of Buddhism. Tibetan Buddhists believe the Dalai Lama to be one of innumerable incarnations of Avalokite?vara (”Chenrezig” in Tibetan), the bodhisattva of compassion. Between the 17th century and 1959, the Dalai Lama was the head of the Tibetan government, administering a large portion of the country from the capital Lhasa. He is often styled “His Holiness” (HH) before his title.
Dalai” means “Ocean” in
Mongolian, and “Lama” (bla ma) is the Tibetan equivalent of the Sanskrit word “guru”, and is commonly translated to mean “spiritual teacher”. The actual title was first bestowed by the Mongolian ruler Altan Khan upon Sonam Gyatso in 1578. Gyatso was an abbot at the Drepung monastery who was widely considered the most eminent lama of his time. Although Sonam Gyatso became the first lama to hold the title “Dalai Lama”, due to the fact that he was the third member of his lineage, he became known as the “3rd Dalai Lama”. The previous two titles were conferred posthumously upon his earlier incarnations. Five Dalai Lamas were murdered by their Buddhist courtiers within 170 years.
The 5th Dalai Lama, with the support of Gushri Khan, a
Mongol ruler of Kh?kh Nuur, united Tibet. The Dalai Lamas continued to partially rule in Tibet with, to some extent, autonomous power given by contemporary Chinese governments, until the People’s Republic of China invaded the region in 1949 and then took full control in 1959. The 14th Dalai Lama then fled to India and has since ceded temporal power to an elected government-in-exile. The current 14th Dalai Lama seeks greater autonomy for Tibet.