His Holiness the Dalai Lama

His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, describes himself as a simple Buddhist monk. He is the spiritual leader of Tibet. He was born on July 6, 1935 to a farming family, in a small hamlet in northeastern Tibet. At the age of two, then named Lhamo Dhondup, His Holiness was recognized as the reincarnation of the previous 13th Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso. After China’s suppression of the Tibetan national uprising of 1959, he was forced into permanent exile, settling at Dharamsala in Punjab, India, where he established a democratically-based alternative government. He was awarded the 1989 Nobel Prize for Peace in recognition of his commitment to the nonviolent liberation of his homeland.