14th dalai lama1/31/2024 ![]() “All I had said to the lama had suggested to him that he might at last have discovered the reincarnation he was seeking.” The 14th Dalai Lama has sat on the throne for more than eight decades “Some can also recite the scriptures although they have not yet been taught them,” he writes. In his first autobiography, My Land and My People, the Dalai Lama writes that it is common for small children who are reincarnates to recall objects and people from their previous lives. “But the 13th Dalai Lama had given the first one to Keutsang, thus explaining the child’s initial uncertainty.” “The first one was Keutsang Rinpoche’s, the other one was the 13th Dalai Lama's,” he says. Two walking sticks were also presented to the boy, which in some accounts, Gardner adds, the child initially chose one, then went to the other. ![]() “In both cases, the child picked up the correct item and claimed that they were his.” “They showed them to the child alongside another rosary and drum - the drum that wasn’t the 13th Dalai Lama's was more ornate to increase its appeal,” he says. When the lama left the next morning the boy clung to him and begged to be taken along.”Ī few days later, according to Gardner, the entire search party returned, without disguises, and brought with them a rosary and ritual drum which had belonged to the 13th Dalai Lama. “The boy also identified the lama as ‘Sera Lama,’ Sera being the monastery in Lhasa where Keutsang Rinpoche was based. “He reached inside the man’s robes and took out a rosary claiming it to be his that rosary had been given to the lama by the 13th Dalai Lama,” Gardner says. Although the leading lama, Keutsang Rinpoche, was dressed as a servant, the child went straight to him and sat in his lap. The 14th Dalai Lama showed immediate signs that he was who they were looking forĪccording to Gardner, two members of the search party disguised themselves as travelers who had lost their way and requested lodging at the boy’s house. The 14th Dalai Lama at age 4 Photo: Getty Images Other signs pointed to a specific monastery and house, which eventually lead the search party to the family home of the 14th Dalai Lama. “This indicated that the reincarnation would be found to the northeast of Lhasa, meaning the Amdo region (mostly now contained in the Chinese province of Qinghai),” he says. Signs, according to Gardner, included the movement of the body of the 13th Dalai Lama, which was placed in state in a sitting position, facing south, but a few days later, faced to the northeast. The hat he wears during the possession is said to be so heavy that it would snap the neck of a man not possessed.” “The oracle is a monk possessed by a deity who answers questions in a language only a trained attendant can understand. “First, the leading lamas of the government and the Geluk monasteries had to read the supernatural signs, and then they had to consult the State Oracle, called the Nechung Oracle,” Gardner says. So 2 is reasonable a year transition, and a child of about a year old to test.” A search party is tasked with following a set of signs pointing them to the reincarnated lamaĪrmed with a series of signs, a search party, commissioned by the Tibetan government and led by high lamas and dignitaries, was dispatched to locate the new incarnation of the previous 13 dalai lamas - the first of which was born in 1391. “The consciousness of the dead lama would have to enter the womb of the mother of the next incarnation and be born, and then they would need the child to be old enough to show signs and be subjected to tests. “Particularly in the case of powerful incarnations such as the Dalai Lamas or Karmapas, the search would begin almost immediately,” he says, noting a suitable amount of time would need to pass following the death of the last lama. This, coupled with my insistence that I be allowed always to sit at the head of the table, was later said to be an indication that I must have known that I was destined for greater things.” It's common for a young child to be identified as the next Dalai LamaĪlexander Gardner, director and chief editor of The Treasury of Lives, a resource for the lived history of Tibet and its surrounding regions, says it is entirely normal for a child as young as 2 to be identified as a reincarnated lama. “I'm going to Lhasa, I'm going to Lhasa, I would say. “Another favorite occupation of mine as an infant was to pack things in a bag as if I was about to go on a long journey,” he says, according to the office. Lhamo Thondup was just a 2-year-old boy, one of seven children living on a farm in a small Tibetan village, when a search party declared him the 14th Dalai Lama.īefore the discovery, he was considered an ordinary boy who spent time collecting eggs in the family’s chicken coop with his mother, according to the Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
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