The 14Th Dalai Lama Essay Research Paper free essay sample

The 14Th Dalai Lama Essay, Research Paper Research Paper November 12, 1999 The 14th Dalai Lama ? Dalai Lama? literally means ocean priest. His huge followings, awestruck by his presence, cast their eyes downward, autumn to the land and weep. They can non look straight in his eyes out of regard. The Dalai Lama realizes the magnitude of his place, but dismisses the devotion. His people call him? His Holiness. ? He calls himself a Tibetan who chooses to be a Buddhist monastic. He besides was leader of a state that Tibetans say is occupied and that Beijing says has ever been portion of China. He is considered the reincarnation of the old 13 Dalai Lamas of Tibet, the first born more than 640 old ages ago. This Dalai Lama is different from his predecessors, though. For case, the 13th Dalai Lama was rigorous and formal, and most Tibetans couldn? T get close to him except during public approval ceremonials. The 14th Dalai Lama meets frequently with Tibetans and aliens and neer keeps people at a distance. He is among 600 Tibetan Buddhist monastics populating in Dharamsala, in northern India. About 7,000 of the 24,000 who live in this metropolis are Tibetans, with the greatest concentration in the small town of McLeod Ganj? the place of Tibet? s government-in- expatriate. The Chinese occupied Tibet in 1950. For nine old ages, the Dalai Lama tried to negociate peaceable coexistence with his people and the Chinese. When that failed, he fled in 1959 to India, where he set up Tibet? s government-in-exile. Lhamo Thondup was born July 6, 1935, to peasant husbandmans in Taktser, a hapless colony on a hill overlooking a wide vale in northeasterly Tibet. Buddhist priests from Lhasa, Tibet? s capital, came for the male child when he was 2. Omens led them to him: from the manner the caput of the 13th Dalai Lama had turned in his casket toward the kid? s small town, to the vision of the house seen in a lake by a high priest. The male child was renamed Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso and raised by monastics in Lhasa in the 1,000-room Potala castle, where the fifth through the present Dalai Lamas resided. As a male child, he had no thought what it meant to be the 14th Dalai Lama? the swayer of the land hidden behind the Himalayas. He was tutored in Buddhist instructions. At 15, with his state under menace from the freshly communist China, he officially became caput of Tibet, which is about three times the size of California. At that clip in 1950, peace in Tibet was shattered when 84,000 Chinese soldiers launched an onslaught at six points along Tibet? s boundary line. Chinese functionaries say communism liberated the downtrodden Tibetan people from a feudal theocracy harshly ruled by a sequence of Dalai Lamas. But many Tibetans say communism neer was attractive for them, and they ever considered the regulation of the Dalai Lama benevolent. Fearful of being captured by the Chinese and believing he would be more effectual outside Tibet, the Dalai Lama fled at age 24 across 17,000-foot Himalayan passes into India. Together with the 70-man leftover of the Tibetan authorities, he was given political refuge. He chose India for its propinquity to his fatherland, and Tibetans felt a religious affinity with their neighbours because Buddhism originated in India. Buddhism teaches people to extinguish agony caused by ignorance, self-importance and self- centeredness. Buddhists cultivate morality, generousness, forbearance, energy, wisdom and speculation. They believe good actions lead to a promising metempsychosis. Tibet was the lone topographic point where Buddhist monks entirely ruled the state. Leaderships were thought to be embodiments of enlightened existences, and they taught others how to quiet their heads and cultivate selflessness. Tibetans say they lived peacefully until the Chinese invaded their state. Since so, 1.2 million people # 8212 ; 20 per centum of the Tibetan population? have died in combat and through monolithic dearths from collectivized agriculture and recreation of Tibetan grain to China. The Chinese gutted all but 10 of Tibet? s 6,254 monasteries, and their hoarded wealth # 8212 ; $ 80 billion in jeweled, gold, Ag and bronze statues and other sanctum points? was trucked back to China and subsequently sold in markets in Hong Kong and Tokyo. Still, the Dalai Lama, 1989 Nobel Peace Prize victor for his non-violent pursuit to liberate his fatherland, doesn? t hate the Chinese. He considers compassion as a agency to recover Tibet? s liberty. Leaderships of Tibet? s government-in-exile have lived since 1960 in Dharamsala, a hill station in Himlach Pradesh, India, 125 stat mis from Tibet? s boundary line. From the centre of Dharamsala, there? s a hair-raising ascent up 1000s of pess along narrow roads that twist to the small town of McLeod Ganj. Tibetans live there under India? s regulations, but they? rhenium permitted their quasi-government. The Dalai Lama drafted a fundamental law in 1963, leting Tibetans throughout the universe to be elected representatives of the government-in-exile. He has established an independent bench, an hearer? s office and other sections. He no longer has concluding say on all governmental affairs and can be impeached. Populating in Dharamsala in the sixtiess and? 70s was hard for the Tibetans because it was isolated. Construction of a little airdrome and installing of a telephone system have improved conditions, the Dalai Lama says. Up the mountain is the Tibetan Children? s Village, run by one of the Dalai Lama? s sisters. It houses and educates about 1,500 childs, many refugees. Its subdivisions throughout India serve 5,500 or so more kids. The Dalai Lama sometimes visits the small town and elsewhere, but the bulk of his clip in Dharamsala is spent praying, chew overing and analyzing. He reads Bibles, surveies philosophy and frequently prays with other Tibetan Buddhist monastics. He besides pores over official documents, listens to the BBC World Service on the wireless and reads magazines like Newsweek and Time and newspapers such as The Times of India and The Hindustan Times. Many people told Tibetans in the sixtiess that their pursuit for freedom was hopeless, the Dalai Lama says. With political alterations in the former Soviet Union and East Germany, he believes Tibetan freedom International Relations and Security Network? T that far-fetched. Obstacles remain before Tibetans have political and societal freedom in their fatherland, the Dalai Lama says. The old Chinese Communist leaders are in their 80s, and he believes the first coevals of revolutionists still respect and obey the authorities government. Even with no marks of political liberalisation, the Communist Party? s free market reforms have improved the Tibetan economic system and quenched agitation. And many Chinese sympathize with the Tibetan freedom motion, the D alai Lama says. Once the current Chinese leaders are gone, ? so I don? t see any obstruction. ? In 1963, His Holiness promulgated a democratic fundamental law, based on Buddhist rules and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as a theoretical account for a future free Tibet. Since so, the Dalai Lama has been the most vigorous advocator for the refugee # 8217 ; s ain democratic experiment, while systematically reaffirming his desire non to keep political office one time Tibet regains its independency. The Dalai Lama continues to show new enterprises to decide the Tibetan issue. At the Congressional Human Rights Caucus in 1987, he proposed a Five-Point Peace Plan as a first measure toward deciding the hereafter position of Tibet. This program called for the appellation of Tibet as a zone of non-violence, an terminal to the monolithic transportation of Chinese into Tibet, Restoration of cardinal human rights and democratic freedoms, and the forsaking of China # 8217 ; s usage of Tibet for atomic arms production and the dumping of atomic waste, every bit good as pressing # 8220 ; earnest dialogues # 8221 ; on the hereafter of Tibet. The Dalai Lama continued what he viewed as the most realistic attempt to make a autonomous democratic Tibet. His proposal, made in Strasbourg, France in 1988, included the adjustment of China # 8217 ; s ain involvements while continuing the Tibetan peoples # 8217 ; ultimate authorization in organizing their authorities. However, the Dalai Lama faced a closed and negative attitude from the Chinese leading in response to his attempts, doing him to declare the Strasbourg Proposal as no longer adhering in 1991. His travels have taken him to Brazil, England, Switzerland and the United States, where he met with President George Bush in April 1991. That meeting ended a 30-year American boycott of the Tibetan leader. The United States neer has officially recognized Tibet, sing it portion of China. The Dalai Lama has met with several major caputs of province every bit good as other senior political, spiritual, cultural and concern leaders to talk on his belief in the unity of the human household and the demand for each person to develop a sense of cosmopolitan duty. In October, 1989, during a duologue with eight rabbis and bookmans from the United States in Dharamsala, The Dalai Lama said, # 8220 ; When we became refugees, we knew our battle would non be easy ; it would take a long clip, coevalss. Very frequently we would mention to the Judaic people, how they kept their individuality and faith despite such adversity and so much agony. And, when external conditions were mature they were ready to reconstruct their state. So you see, there are many things to larn from our Judaic brothers and sisters. # 8221 ; His negotiations in other forums focused on the commonalty of religions and the demand for integrity among different faiths: # 8220 ; I ever believe that it is much better to hold a assortment of faiths, a assortment of doctrines, instead than one individual faith or doctrine. This is necessary because of the different mental temperaments of each human being. Each faith has certain alone thoughts or techniques, and larning about them can merely enrich one # 8217 ; s ain faith. # 8221 ; The Dalai Lama has received legion honorary doctors degrees from Universities worldwide. In 1989, he received The Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway. The Norse Nobel Committee emphasized the Dalai Lama # 8217 ; s consistent resistance of the usage of force in Tibet # 8217 ; s battle for freedom and remarked that, # 8220 ; The Dalai Lama has developed his doctrine of peace from a great fear for all things populating and upon the construct of cosmopolitan duty encompassing all world every bit good as nature # 8230 ; [ he ] has come frontward with constructive and advanced proposals for the solution of international struggles, human rights issues and planetary environmental problems. # 8221 ; Despite his great accomplishments, the Dalai Lama remains modest, frequently stating # 8220 ; I am merely a simple Buddhist monk # 8212 ; no more, no less. # 8221 ; While contending for peace and freedom for his people and others, His Holiness has authored many books. Some intended to learn others to state narratives. Ancient Wisdom, Modern World # 8211 ; Ethical motives for a New Millennium is the latest book by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and his first major publication in recent old ages. In this work, His Holiness calls for a revolution # 8211 ; non a political, an economic, a proficient or even a spiritual revolution, but a religious revolution to assist us through the moral labyrinth of modern life. Awakening the Mind, Lightening the Heart is a practical direction book on developing compassion in our day-to-day lives through simple speculations that straight relate to past and present relationships. Cultivating a Daily Meditation includes two discourses in which His Holiness touches upon the indispensable points of the Dharma and provides a clear and simple method to cultivate a day-to-day pattern of speculation. He besides explains how we should continue in the attempt to bring forth both the bosom of compassion and the expansive position of emptiness in our day-to-day life. Dalai Lama # 8217 ; s Small Book of Wisdom is an inspirational volume offering encouragement to anyone seeking a more peaceable and liberating manner of life. Here the Dalai Lama portions his position on such digesting subjects as love, faith, justness, human rights, poorness, cultural struggle and protection of the environment. Freedom in Exile: The Autobiography of the Dalai Lama of Tibet is an updated a utobiography following the award of the Nobel Peace Prize, in which the Dalai Lama talks freely of his life and the tragic narrative of Tibet, and besides discusses modern-day issues. The Dalai Lama is a adult male who believes and patterns in universe peace, felicity, interior balance, and freedom. Bringing peace and freedom to Tibet and to the universe has been the Dalai Lama? s life for the last many old ages. Writing books, sing Presidents and functionaries, and buttonholing for his cause has become what he is. What I believe is that His Holiness is a great adult male. He is a adult male who has lived in expatriate for decennaries but has non given up his cause of emancipating himself and his people. He teaches about a planetary community, where all states of our planet would populate and be with and for each other, in harmoniousness. Compassion is another thing His Holiness Teachs, to populate and care for others. I am non and may neer be a practicing Buddhist, but in my bosom and in myself I will ever believe that the Dalai Lama is one of the greatest work forces of all time to walk the Earth. In our universe where aggression, struggle and force strain hatre d for our fellow adult male, how of import is a adult male such as the Dalai Lama whose instructions involve love, compassion and peace.