CHAPTER 1 HUMBLE BEGINNINGS EARLY TROUBLE enzin Gyatso whose birth a name was Lhamo E Thondup was RTA born on July 6 FEE 1935 in the village of Taktser in the northeastern A part of Tibet His parents were farmers as were many of the family s neighbors The family was living in the village of Amdo when PRAE a search party arrived searching for the next Young Lhamo Thondup is pictured here around the time he was declared to be the next Dalai Lama Dalai
HUMBLE BEGINNINGS EARLY TROUBLE QUICK FACT Tibetan Buddhist leaders use different ways to discover where the Dalai Lama will be reborn One method is to consult an oracle who is a holy person believed to get messages from a god An oracle directed searchers to the region of Amdo The young Lhamo Thondup was given several tests which included choosing special items that had belonged to the thirteenth Dalai Lama The young boy was identified as the fourteenth Dalai Lama in 1937 and given the spiritual name Tenzin Gyatso Tenzin and his family moved to Lhasa the Tibetan capital Before his fifth birthday he was officially given the title of Dalai Lama He was made a Buddhist monk and moved into Potala Palace where all Dalai Lamas live without his family There he received a good education which included spiritual
THE DALAILAMA SPIRITUAL LEADER OF THE TIBETANPEOPLE QUICK FACT When Tenzin was first recognized as the Dalai Lama a greedy Chinese military leader held him and his family hostage The Tibetan government paid the ransom and the family was set free unharmed COMING OF AGE QUICKLY Although Tibet was part of China it gained a degree of self government in the early twentieth century Chinese troops however entered Tibet in 1950 In a move to try to keep some independence the Dalai Lama was named the head of Tibet's government that same year about five years ahead of schedule Because he was only fifteen a regent or temporary ruler was given power to rule until the Dalai Lama reached the age of
HUMBLE BEGINNINGS EARLY TROUBLE The Dalai Lama right gives China's Mao Tse tung a scarf during their meeting in the 1950s In 1951 China took control of Tibet Even though he was not an officially recognized government leader anymore the Dalai Lama stayed in Tibet for seven and a half years trying to protect the rights of the Tibetan people He even traveled to China to meet with the country s leader at the time Mao Tse
