<\/a>His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso<\/b>, was born on 6 July 1935 at Tak-Tse of Doemey Province in Tibet. He is the spiritual and temporal leader of the Tibetan people.<\/p>\n

Unlike leaders of the other countries, he does not achieve his position by succession, election, appointment, or force. Considered to be the fourteenth successive manifestation of the bodhisattva of compassion, Avalokitesvara<\/I>, he was chosen according to a series of signs, divinations, and tests that unquestionably verified him to be the reincarnation of his predecessor.<\/p>\n

The Thirteenth Dalai Lama, Thupten Gyatso<\/b>, passed away in 1933, leaving a number of clues to his future place of rebirth. Some years after his passing, those responsible for finding his new incarnation began their search: they examined the clues; they consulted the oracles; several visions (of the three Tibetan letter, AH, KA, and MA, of a monastery, and of a house) appeared to them in the sacred lake of Palden Lhamo, \u201cLhamoi Latso\u201d<\/b>. In 1937, they sent out search parties to look for a child born in a house with a jade and gold roofed monastery nearby.<\/p>\n

The search party, headed by Keutsang Rinpoche of Sera Monastery<\/I>, following the advice of the ninth Pachen Lama<\/I>, found just such a house in the village of Takster in the northeastern region of Amdo. Asked about its inhabitants, the villagers there replied that the couple living there had many special dreams prior to the birth of one of their sons a few years before, and that rainbows had been seen over the house upon his birth.<\/p>\n

Disguising himself as a servant and wearing a rosary that had belonged to the Thirteenth Dalai Lama, Keutsang Rinpoche and two other members of this preliminary delegation arrived unannounced at the door. When the couple\u2019s two-year-old son, Lhamo Dhondrup<\/b>, saw Keutsang Rinpoche in the kitchen wearing the rosary, the boy immediately demanded that it be given to him. Keutsang Rinpoche replied that he could have it if the child were able to identify him. To this, Lhamo Dhondrup correctly replied that Keatsang Rinpoche was a Sera lama; the boy was able to name the other two members of the delegation. The next day, as he watched the visitors prepare to leave, Lhamo Dhondrup tearfully begged to accompany them.<\/p>\n

Soon afterward, the entire search party administered further tests. In one test, they presented the young boy with the objects that had belonged to the Thirteenth Dalai Lama together with similar objects that had not belonged to him. The child was then asked to choose his own belongings from his previous life. Each time, he chose correctly. Following these tests, oracles and various high lamas were consulted; they too verified that this child was the actual reincarnation of the Thirteenth Dalai Lama. His official investiture as the Fourteenth Dalai Lama took place on 22 February 1940. Upon receiving ordination as a novice monk, Lhamo Dhondrup was newly named Tenzin Gyatso<\/b>.<\/p>\n

From the ages of six to twenty-five<\/I>, under the tutelage of the best teachers, the young Dalai Lama was educated in Buddhist philosophy as well as such other subjects as mathematics, astronomy, medicine, poetry, history, and composition.<\/p>\n