Dalai Lama

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Tenzin Gyatso (Tibetan: བསྟན་འཛིན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ Wylie: Bstan 'dzin Rgya mtsho) (b. July 6 1935) is the fourteenth and current Dalai Lama. The fifth of nine children of a farming family in the Tibetan province of Amdo, he was proclaimed the tulku (reincarnation) of the thirteenth Dalai Lama at the age of three. On November 17 1950, at the age of fifteen, he was enthroned as Tibet's Head of State and most important political ruler, while Tibet faced occupation by the forces of the People's Republic of China.

After the collapse of the Tibetan resistance movement in 1959, Tenzin Gyatso fled to India, where he was active in establishing the government of Tibet in exile and preserving Tibetan culture and education among the thousands of refugees who accompanied him.

A charismatic figure and noted public speaker, Tenzin Gyatso is the first Dalai Lama to travel to the West, where he has helped to spread Buddhism and to publicise the cause of Free Tibet. In 1989, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.