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Dalai Lama Research Paper

A reputation is one of the most important things a person can have in life. It is the beliefs or opinions that are generally held about someone or something and it may decide your whole life and decide how successful you may become. A reputation or the way some one looks at you can be viewed as the way you dress, your education level or the people you are associated with and sometimes people are given a reputation by the acts of the people in their family. Many people cannot get jobs or succeed in life because of their reputation.

The Dalai Lama is the subject that l’ll talk about, his reputation, birth, amily, and education. the western and the Chinese government’s view about him, the interplay of religious, personal and political qualities/factors in the construction of his reputation, and many important information about the issues involved in setting the Dalai Lama in his historical context. The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, is the spiritual and temporal leader of the Tibetan people. He was born in a small village called Taktser, Amdo in northeastern Tibet in July 6, 1935 to a peasant family. Dalai Lama’s holiness was recognized at the age of two, in accordance with Tibetan tradition, as the eincarnation of his predecessor the 13th Dalai Lama.

The Dalai Lamas are the manifestation of the Bodhisattva of compassion, who chose to reincarnate to serve the people. Dalai Lama means ocean of wisdom. When he was asked for view himself, he said that: “I always consider myself as a simple Buddhist monk. I feel that is real me. I feel that Dalai Lama as a temporal ruler is a man-made institution. As long as the people accept the Dalai Lama, they will accept me. But being a monk is something which belongs to me. No one can change that. Deep down inside. I always consider myself a monk, even in my dreams.. the spiritual or religious life is something I know and have great interest in.

I have some kind confidence in it, and thus I want to study it more. except for someone not so well equipped. This is not voluntary work but something trust that the Tibetan people place on me” 4. His Holiness began his monastic education at the age of six. The curriculum consisted of five major and five minor subjects. The major subjects were logic, Tibetan art and culture, Sanskrit, medicine, and Buddhist philosophy. He completed the Geshe Lharampa Degree (Doctorate of Buddhist Philosophy) when he as 25. At 24, he took the preliminary examination at each of the three monastic universities: Drepung, Sera and Ganden.

The final examination was held in the Jokhang, Lhasa, during the annual Monlam Festival of Prayer, held in the first month of every year. In the morning he was examined by 30 scholars on logic. (Lama, n. d. ) Bibliography 1’2’3’4 lama, D. , n. d. Birth to Exile. Regarding politics, I have no modern education Lama, D. , n. d. Questions & Answers. The Dalai Lama represent a distinct subset of major world religion -Tibetan Buddhism- but he repeatedly makes it clear hat his positive view of the future does not entail mass conversion to Buddhism.

You have seen his Nobel Prize acceptance speech that he accept that not everyone will hold religious view, and elsewhere he emphasises that it is not necessary for people to change their religion. Unlike his predecessors, His Holiness has met and talked with many Westerners and has visited the United States, Canada, Western Europe, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, Mongolia, Greece, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Nepal, Costa Rica, Mexico, the Vatican, China and Australia. He has met with religious leaders from all these countries.

At a press conference in Rome, His Holiness the Dalai Lama outlined his hopes for the meeting with John Paul II: “We live in a period of great crisis, a period of troubling world developments. It is not possible to find peace in the soul without security and harmony between the people. For this reason, I look forward with faith and hope to my meeting with the Holy Father; to an exchange of ideas and feelings, and to his suggestions, so as to open the door to a progressive pacification between people. ” 2 In 1981, His Holiness talked with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Robert Runcie, and with other leaders of the Anglican Church in London.

He also met with leaders of the Roman Catholic and Jewish communities and spoke at an interfaith service in his honor by the World Congress of Faiths. His talk focused on the commonality of faiths and the need for unity among different religions: “I always believe that it is much better to have a variety of religions, a variety of philosophies, rather than one single religion or philosophy. This is necessary because of the different mental dispositions of each human being. Each religion has certain unique ideas or techniques, and learning about them can only enrich one’s own faith. 3 The Recognitions of the West about the Dalai Lama that, Since his first visit to the west in the early 1970s, His Holiness’ reputation as a scholar and man of peace has grown steadily.

In recent years, a number of western universities and institutions have conferred Peace Awards and honorary Doctorate Degrees upon His Holiness in recognition of his distinguished writings in Buddhist philosophy and of his distinguished leadership in the service of freedom nd peace, and many other people gives their opinions about the Dalai Lamas, Zeidler claimed said that: ” He is called the “great Lama. In order to cause the people to believe that he lives forever, the other priests set another in his place as soon as he dies, and thus continue the deception. The priests babble to the people that the lama has lived for more than seven hundred years and will continue to live eternally. ” 4

Austin Waddell said that tantric Buddhism was little more than “devil- worship” and “sorcery”: “The bulk of the Lamaist cults comprise much deep-rooted devil-worship and sorcery Lamaism is only hinly and imperfectly varnished over with Buddhist symbolism, beneath which the sinister growth of poly-demonist superstition darkly appears. 5 Works Cited 1’2′ Dalai Lama (Freedom in Exile). The Autobiography of the Dalai Lama. New York: Harper Collins, 1990. ?Paraphrased from Zeidler, 1745: 28-29. 4Waddell, i895: xi. The China-Tibet conflict is often viewed as an ethnic and/or religious conflict. This is understandable, given the prominence of ethnicity and religion in the conflict. While the native inhabitants of the Tibetan plateau are Tibetans, the majority ethnic group in China is Han Chinese. The Chinese government is made up mostly of Han Chinese, and it does not have a strong record of dealing with China’s ethnic minorities -like Tibetans- in a fair way.

Virtually all Tibetans are Buddhists, while ethnic Han Chinese are generally not, even though the Chinese people are becoming increasingly religious -including Buddhist- now that the ideology of Communism has collapsed in China. Moreover, the Chinese government has a history of persecuting religious movements, especially those which draw large numbers of followers and which have the potential to transform into olitical movements that could potentially threaten the regime’s hold on power.

Another principal cause of the Tibet conflict has been Chinese governance -and the precipitating “Sinicization” – of the region. While the Chinese government claims that it has successfully raised the standard of living in Tibet, many Tibetans -both inside and outside Tibet- believe that the Chinese government’s “modernization” policies have hurt the region. On the other hand, the Chinese believe that Tibet’s historically great empire greatly declined beginning in the 9th Century and then as finally and completely brought down by the Mongols centuries ago.

Tibet then came under Chinese “suzerainty” in the 18th Century, and it remained under Chinese administration until the late 19th Century when Great Britain invaded Tibet, wanting to control Tibet as a buffer between China and British India. The Dalai Lama is the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, and in the tradition of Bodhisattva he has spent his life committed to benefiting humanity. He has written numerous books and conducted hundreds of conferences, lectures and workshops at major universities and institutions throughout the orld, discussing engaging in wisdom, compassion and, more recently, environmental sustainability.

Unlike his predecessors, the Dalai Lama has met with many Western leaders and has visited the United States, Europe, Russia, Latin America and many countries in Asia on a number of occasions. Known as an effective public speaker, the Dalai Lama is often described as charismatic. His message is always one of peace and compassion for people all over the world. During his travels abroad, he has stressed the need for a better understanding of and respect among different faiths of the world. In 1989, the

Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his nonviolent efforts for the liberation of Tibet and his concern for global environmental problems. In recent years, a number of Western universities and institutions have conferred peace awards and honorary doctorate degrees upon the Dalai Lama in recognition of his distinguished writings in Buddhist philosophy, as well as his outstanding leadership in the service of freedom and peace, and as a monk he of course his Holiness has three main commitments in life, on the level of a human being, religious practitioner, and his third commitment is to the Tibetan issue The Western stereotype is that Tibetans are tranquil people, In the popular imagination of an increasing number of Western adherents of Tibetan Buddhism, traditional Tibet has come to stand as something from which they derive strength and identity, representing what we someday can be, an ideal to which we can aspire, an ideal that once existed on the planet in high Tibet. Tibet, in short, has become a stereotype, where complex differences and competing histories have been flattened into a sterile essence. Stereotypes operate through adjectives, which turn selected characteristics into eternal truths.

Tibet is isolated, Tibetans are content, and monks are spiritual. These adjectives, with sufficient repetition, become innate qualities, immune from history. When it comes to Tibet and Tibetans there is many kinds of stereotypes: One of them is the romantic stereotype – Tibet as Shangri La, an exotic, timeless touristy region of simple, peaceful folks. The spiritual stereotype – Tibet as the spiritual Buddhist holy land. Tibetan Buddhist gurus have many followers in other parts of China. The patronising stereotype – Tibet is pre-modern, China is modern. The Communist Party liberated Tibet from medieval backwardness.

Tibet depends on aid from the Chinese state. China’s affirmative action policies are beneficial to the Tibetans, maybe too generously. At the end, The Dalai Lama has a complex role and competing reputations. He is a religious leader, a politician, a negotiator, and the symbol of hope for his people. He is the holder of a traditional, charismatic office with a long history, but he has powerful enemies. After his death his personal reputation will be reassessed. The Dalai Lama after all what we read about him, is a complex person who has lived a fascinating life.

His whole existence has been marked with his recognition f himself as the reincarnated leader of Tibetan Buddhism. Though he is seen as a political figure, he is also renowned for dedicating his life to advocating the rights and the well-being of Tibetan people and to propagating the ideals of peace and tolerance. The 14th Dalai Lama possesses a strong and charismatic personality; he is a living embodiment of his own teaching about the importance of love and compassion. While many of his ideas have their roots in ancient Buddhism, Dalai Lama has made them easier to understand for many of his followers all over the world.

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