How does dalai lama live

Dalai Lamas, or their regents, governed much of the Tibetan plateau with varying degrees of autonomy from the 17th century until China occupied Tibet in But he fled his homeland in after a Tibetan rebellion against Chinese rule was forcefully repressed. Tibet has undergone sweeping changes in his absence. For more than 60 years, the Dalai Lama has lived in a compound with a garden where he walks each morning if it is not raining, near a Tibetan Buddhist temple in Dharamshala, a picturesque Himalayan hill station in northern India.

The town hosts the Central Tibetan Administration, also known as the Tibetan government in exile, which represents hundreds of thousands of Tibetans who have fled their homeland since it was annexed by China. Tibetan exiles set fire to Chinese goods in Dharamshala in after a crackdown by Chinese troops against protests in Tibet. Credit: AP. I first encountered the Dalai Lama at a difficult moment for him and the Tibetan people.

It was March and anti-China protests inside Tibet had turned violent, attracting global media attention. The press conference was sometimes tense as reporters questioned why he was not being more critical of the repressive tactics being used by Chinese authorities inside Tibet.

When my turn came, the Dalai Lama held my hand for some time and remarked on how far I had come to attend. At one point, the Dalai Lama leant forward in his chair, fixed me with an intense gaze and described the predicament facing all Tibetans campaigning for greater autonomy for their homeland. It can only express the truth. Our only weapon, our only strength, is justice and truth.

The Dalai Lama during a press conference in Dharamshala in March The conclusion of that press conference was different to any I have experienced. The Dalai Lama stayed on to greet his inquisitors one at a time.

With charm and grace, he shook hands, joked and chatted. Reporters now jostled to meet the famous monk they had been grilling minutes earlier. I left with a deeper appreciation of why this Dalai Lama is so widely admired. An attendant carries the new Dalai Lama as he prepares to journey across the Himalayas to Lhasa, Tibet. Years later, he would flee to north India. Credit: Getty Images. When a Dalai Lama dies — or even before their death — a successor is found rather than chosen.

The search involves consulting oracles, interpreting visions and reading spiritual signs. The senior monks may find clues from the deceased body of the Dalai Lama, such as the direction it faces or its posture.

If the body is cremated, the direction of the smoke is monitored as a potential indicator for the direction of rebirth. After his morning shower, His Holiness begins the day with prayers, meditations and prostrations until 5 am.

From 5 am His Holiness takes a short morning walk around the residential premises. If it is raining outside, His Holiness has a treadmill to use for his walk. Breakfast is served at 5. For breakfast, His Holiness typically has hot porridge, tsampa barley powder , bread with preserves, and tea.

From 6 am to 9 am His Holiness continues his morning meditation and prayers. From around 9 am he usually spends time studying various Buddhist texts and commentaries written by great Buddhist masters. Bush has made a point of meeting the Dalai Lama until Donald Trump, who is in negotiations with China over reforming its state-controlled economy.

Still, the Dalai Lama holds out hope for a return to his birthplace. Despite his renown and celebrity friends, he remains a man aching for home and a leader removed from his people. He instead advocates for greater autonomy and religious and cultural freedom for his people. It matters little. The boy born Lhamo Thondup was identified as the 14th incarnation of the Dalai Lama at just 2 years old, when a retinue of top lamas, or senior Buddhist Tibetan monks, followed a series of oracles and prophecies to his village in northeastern Tibet.

The precocious toddler seemed to recognize objects belonging to the 13th Dalai Lama, prompting the lamas to proclaim him the celestial heir. At age 4, he was carried on a golden palanquin into the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, and ensconced in its resplendent Potala Palace.

A daily routine of spiritual teaching by top religious scholars followed. But I knew that if the whip was used, it made no difference — holy pain! It was a lonely childhood. The Dalai Lama rarely saw his parents and had no contact with peers of his own age, save his elder brother Lobsang Samden, who served as head of household.

He took apart and reassembled a projector and camera to see how they functioned. The Dalai Lama was only supposed to assume a political role on his 18th birthday, with a regent ruling until then.

With no political experience or knowledge of the outside world, he was thrust into negotiations with an invading army while trying to calm his fervent but poorly armed subjects. Conditions worsened over the next nine years of occupation. By March , rumors spread that the Dalai Lama would be abducted or assassinated, fomenting a doomed popular uprising that looked likely to spill into serious bloodshed.

So then we knew it was very serious. On the 17th morning, I decided to escape. The Dalai Lama reached India incognito atop a dzo, a cross between a yak and a cow. Hundreds of thousands died. By some reckonings, The kingdom had no useful allies, the government of Lhasa having declined to establish official diplomatic relations with any other nation or join international organizations.

It never did. Four decades of conversations between China and exiled Tibetan leadership have led nowhere. The talks stipulated that Tibetan independence was off the table, but even so, the drawn-out process was suspended in and after briefly resuming in the s is again at a standstill.

Meanwhile, Tibet remains firmly under the thumb of Beijing. The U. In May, Tibetan businessman Tashi Wangchuk was jailed for five years merely for promoting the Tibetan language. In December, the government issued a directive to stop Tibetan language and culture from being taught in monasteries. Although the U. Many allege their cultural and religious freedom is under attack by the Beijing government.

Some in Tibet resort to extreme measures to protest their treatment. Since , more than Tibetans — monks, nuns and ordinary civilians — have set themselves ablaze in protest.