Dalai Lama The Soul of Tibet Biography 2/5

One of the world's most admired men, he is the spiritual and secular leader of a nation that exists only as a "Lost Kingdom." Born Tenzin Gyatso, he is the 14th man recognized by his people as Buddha's reincarnation and honored with the title he is known by worldwide: His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Yet, for a man so widely respected, His Holiness has been living in exile since 1959, after a failed rebellion against the occupying Chinese forced him to flee his nation.

Highlighting key footage from the Dalai Lama's life--including his acceptance of the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize--this enlightening program features interviews with Chinese scholars, Tibet activists such as actor Richard Gere, and His Holiness himself to chronicle in great detail the ongoing struggle to free Tibet.

The Dalai Lama is the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism and formerly the ruler of Tibet. The Dalai Lama is believed to be a reincarnation of the Buddha. When he dies, his soul is thought to enter the body of a newborn boy, who, after being identified by traditional tests, becomes the new Dalai Lama.

The first to bear the title of Dalai Lama was Sonam Gyatso, grand lama of the Drepung monastery and leader of the Gelugpa (Yellow Hat) sect, who received it in 1578 from the Mongol chief Altan Khan; it was then applied retroactively to the previous leaders of the sect. In 1642 another Mongol chief, Gushri Khan, installed the fifth Dalai Lama as Tibet's spiritual and temporal ruler. His successors governed Tibet—first as tributaries of the Mongols, but from 1720 to 1911 as vassals of the emperor of China.

When the Chinese Communists occupied Tibet in 1950, they came into increasing conflict with Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama. He left the country after an unsuccessful rebellion in 1959 and thereafter lived in India. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 for leading the nonviolent opposition to continued Chinese rule in Tibet. In 1995 the Dalai Lama came into conflict with Chinese authorities over the identification of a new Panchen Lama (the second most senior Tibetan religious authority). In 1996 he published Violence and Compassion, in which he and French screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière consider topics of political and spiritual interest.

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