The Dalai Lama

His Holiness the Dalai Lama with Riz Khan

He calls himself a simple Tibetan monk, but he is far more than that to his people and most of the Buddhist world.

 

He is a Nobel Peace laureate who has had to live in exile in northern India since he fled his homeland as a teenager.

 
Tenzin Gyatso, known around the world simply as The Dalai Lama was the first Tibetan spiritual leader to travel to the West. 

 

It is a trend he has continued as he regularly meets with world leaders to publicise the cause for a free Tibet.

 

Tibet is governed by China and the Dalai Lama has led a government in exile in Dharamsala, in northern India since fleeing his homeland in 1959.

 

Tenzin Gyatso has had a colourful life from an early age. He was taken from his family around the age of two, for intensive training, after being identified as the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama. He was enthroned as Tibet’s head of state at the age of 15.

 

In 1989, this simple monk – to use his words – was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts for a peaceful resolution in the struggle for a free Tibet.