1935– 
SPIRITUAL AND POLITICAL LEADER TIBET AND INDIA
For as long as space endures, and for as long as living beings remain, until then may I, too . . . dispel the misery of the world.
—THE DALAI LAMA
The mud hut was dark and cold, with only a yak-oil lamp lighting the room. The traveling merchants couldn’t believe that this shabby house in such a remote village might be the right one, but they carefully laid out dozens of objects just in case.
“Show us the things that belong to you,” whispered the oldest merchant to the small boy. The boy’s parents were bewildered as their son picked up a drum and then some old prayer beads. “It’s mine. It’s mine,” he said confidently each time. The merchants raised their eyebrows at each other—the items had belonged to their dead leader. The boy chose correctly. Perhaps we have found him after all, they secretly hoped.
Their hearts sank, however, when the boy struggled over his final choice. He stared at two nearly identical walking sticks but couldn’t choose between them. Everyone in the room held their breath. Were the earlier choices just a coincidence? As they began to give up hope, the boy smiled and took hold of the correct cane. The adults let out a collective sigh of relief.
The young Dalai Lama was very mechanical. He could fix clocks and watches like a pro. He rebuilt an old car and raced it around the palace courtyard (there were no roads in Tibet!), and even started his own movie theater with a broken-down projector and some old newsreels.
“The prophecies were correct,” the old merchant cried joyfully. “We have found our Dalai Lama!” The boy’s parents gasped in surprise as the merchants removed their disguises. The “merchants” were really high officials from the holy city of Lhasa, and after years of searching, they had finally found the next god-king of Tibet.
Tibet, located high in the Himalayan Mountains between China and India, is a Buddhist country. Followers of the Buddhist religion believe in reincarnation: when a person dies, his or her soul is reborn into another living form. You could come back as a person, an animal, or even a bug! They also believe that their leader, the Dalai Lama, is always the reincarnation of the original Dalai Lama, who ruled Tibet in the 1300s. When a Dalai Lama dies, they must find the new child his soul has been reborn into.
Before being discovered as the Dalai Lama, one of Lhamo’s favorite pastimes was hanging out in the chicken coop, pretending to be a chicken. He even sat on the nests!
When the thirteenth Dalai Lama died, officials scoured the land looking for his reincarnation. Meanwhile, in a small village in northeast Tibet, the future Dalai Lama, Lhamo Dhondrub, was born in 1935. Although he was raised as a normal boy, he was always different. As soon as he could talk, the unusual boy told everyone that his home was really in Lhasa and demanded to sit at the head of the table, instead of his father!
Back in Lhasa, the monks’ search for their reincarnated leader was guided by a vision. Looking into the waters of a sacred pool, they saw a temple with a blue roof and a house with strange wooden rain gutters. After years of searching, they finally found the temple and the house—it was the home of two-year-old Lhamo.
As a boy, the Dalai Lama was a bit of a troublemaker, but the monks couldn’t punish him. How could they spank their holy ruler? When he got into trouble, they spanked his brother instead, hoping this would make him feel guilty enough to stop!
After testing the boy with the belongings of the previous Dalai Lama, the monks took their new leader and his family to the city of Lhasa where he moved into the Potala Palace. While you might be psyched to move into a palace with a thousand rooms, the Dalai Lama was bummed out. The stone palace was dark and cold—like a dungeon—and his family didn’t live there. Worst of all, there were no other kids. His playmates were old monks, and he made pets out of the mice that lived in his room!
The Dalai Lama lived this lonely life until he was fifteen. That’s when his country was invaded by China, and he had to grow up fast. For hundreds of years, Tibet and China had argued about whether Tibet was its own country or just part of China. In 1950, China settled the debate by invading Tibet. The teenage Dalai Lama, who was still training to lead the country, was put in charge two years early to deal with the crisis. He hoped other countries might help, but no one wanted to anger China, a superpower, just to help out tiny Tibet. The Dalai Lama was on his own.
Whenever the Dalai Lama left Potala Palace, he was carried in a small room on poles, called a PALANQUIN, and was followed by a parade of more than one hundred people, the palace horses, and even cages of birds!
He struggled to lead his country, but life in Chinese-occupied Tibet got worse and worse for its people. Buddhist temples were destroyed, and hundreds of monks were sent to prison, where many were tortured, starved, and killed. Farmers were sent to work camps, and their lands were given to Chinese immigrants. Although Buddhism forbids violence and Tibet had no army, the people tried to rebel in 1959. They were no match for the huge Chinese army, and their rebellion was crushed.
In the years after the Dalai Lama’s escape, Buddhism and the Tibetan language were outlawed. Punishment for keeping a picture of the Dalai Lama was death! Over a million Tibetans have been killed. When the Dalai Lama left, there were almost 3,000 Buddhist temples in Tibet. Now there are just nine.
After the failed rebellion, Tibetans feared that the Chinese would kill their Dalai Lama next, so they surrounded his palace, creating a human shield. It was a weeklong standoff. Even after Chinese soldiers fired shots into the crowd, they still would not leave. The Dalai Lama realized his people would give their lives to protect him. He couldn’t just sit by and watch his country fall apart and innocent people die.
He planned a James Bond–style escape. His only hope was to get help from the outside world. But how? The palace was surrounded, Chinese soldiers were everywhere, and he would have to travel for weeks through the frozen Himalayas to get to the nearest country. In the dark of night, disguised as palace guards, he and his advisers sneaked out of the palace and into the crowd. Miraculously, no one recognized their sacred leader without his glasses on!
This was just the beginning of a terrifying two-week horseback journey through enemy territory. The hard travel, lack of sleep, and bad food soon took its toll: most of the party got very sick, including the Dalai Lama. He was so ill that he couldn’t walk, and he had to be strapped onto the back of a yak to finish the trip.
When they finally crossed the border into India, the Dalai Lama knew his adventure was over and the real work was just beginning. He founded a Tibetan community in the town of Dharamsala, high in the Indian Himalayas, a place where he and his people could practice their religion freely for the first time in ten years. In 1963 he also created a new and improved Tibetan government and their first democratic constitution.
Dalai Lama means “ocean of wisdom.”
More than fifty years have passed since the Dalai Lama’s escape, and Tibet is still not free. Chinese immigrants now outnumber Tibetans, and the country’s ancient religion and traditions are practiced only by the escaped Tibetans now living in Dharamsala. The Dalai Lama has spent the past five decades traveling the world to protest this injustice. In 1989 the world heard his message: he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Overall, the Dalai Lama has been presented with more than 125 awards and honors for his peace work. Because of his example, world leaders, Hollywood celebrities, and the media regularly speak out for Tibet and put pressure on China to change their policies.
In 1996, a Seattle, Washington, boy was discovered to be the reincarnation of a Tibetan lama. At age two, the boy was taken to a Buddhist monastery in Nepal to begin his studies.
While he has not achieved all of his goals, the Dalai Lama has saved the soul of his people. His Tibetan community in India is thriving, and in spite of China’s power, the world knows about Tibet’s struggle. In a world that often seems to be filled with war and hatred, the Dalai Lama reminds us that we can resolve our conflicts peacefully, if we choose to. The boy who grew up trapped inside a palace has spent the rest of his life traveling the world and spreading his message of peace. One of his teachings says:
The problems we face today—violent conflicts, destruction of nature, poverty, hunger, and so on—are mainly problems created by humans. They can be resolved—but only through human effort, understanding, and the development of a sense of brotherhood and sisterhood.9
On every walk I take through a city, I turn a corner and see a homeless person sleeping, doing drugs, or begging. Some people see druggies, beggars, and pests. I see people who have been given up on and have nothing to live for. When I see homeless people, I wish they had a place to live and that they could feel wanted and loved. This is what has made me want to make a home for the homeless.
SAM BUGAS 
AGE 13