The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, is the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people and head of the Central Tibetan Administration in exile from India.
He was born Lhamo Dhondrub on 6 July 1935, in a small village called Taktser in northeastern Tibet.
The Dalai Lama, "Ocean Teacher," meaning a teacher who is spiritually as deep as the ocean, is a revered spiritual leader among Tibetans and exerts a powerful influence over the Gelug School of Tibetan Buddhism.
Born to a peasant family, he was recognized at the age of two, in accordance with Tibetan tradition, as the reincarnation of his predecessor the 13th Dalai Lama, and thus an incarnation Avalokitesvara, the Buddha of Compassion.
On 17 November 1950, at the age of fifteen, he was enthroned as Tibet's Dalai Lama, thus becoming Tibet's most important political ruler. This occurred only one month after the People's Liberation Army's invasion of Tibet.
Between the 17th century and 1959, the Dalai Lama was the head of the Tibetan Government, administering a large portion of the country from the capital Lhasa.
However, the extent of the lineages political authority and rulership over territory has been contested.
Since 1959, the Dalai Lama has presided over the Central Tibetan Administration in exile from India, but the government of the People's Republic of China regards him as the symbol.
TIBETAN GOVERNMENT IN EXILE
In 1951, under military pressure, the Dalai Lama ratified the 1951 Seventeen Point Agreement, a document affirming Chinese sovereignty over Tibet.
Following the failed uprising and the collapse of the Tibetan resistance movement in 1959, The Dalai Lama left Tibet for India, where he has been active in establishing the Tibetan Government in Exile and in seeking to preserve Tibetan culture and education among the thousands of refugees who accompanied him.
The Dalai Lama has been calling for more cultural autonomy in his native Tibet but stressed that he did not want to see the territory become independent from China.
In March, two days after violent clashes between pro-autonomy demonstrators and Chinese security forces in Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, the Dalai Lama called for an international probe of China's treatment of Tibet, which he said was causing "cultural genocide" of his people.
TEACHING
The Dalai Lama is a Dzogchen practitioner and he gives teachings on this issue, and has expounded many teachings in his numerous publications.
According to some schools of Tibetan Buddhism, the humans' ultimate nature is said to be pure, all-encompassing, primordial awareness.
Dzogchen is the natural, primordial state or natural condition of every sentient being, including every human being.
RETIRES AS POLITICAL HEAD
In March 2011 the Dalai Lama announced he was retiring as political head of the exiled Tibetan movement, shifting that power to an elected representative.
Speaking on the anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan uprising against Chinese control, he said the time had come "to devolve my formal authority to the elected leader".
Lobsang Sangay was elected Tibetan Prime Minister in April 2011. He is a Tibetan legal scholar, an expert in international human rights law, and holds a Doctorate in law and LL.M. from Harvard Law School.
THE PANCHEN LAMA
The Panchen Lama is the second highest ranking Lama after the Dalai Lama in the Gelugpa.
Who is the true present incarnation of the Panchen Lama is a matter of controversy.
The current Dalai Lama named Gedhun Choekyi Nyima as the 11th reincarnation of the Panchen Lama on May 14, 1995 but the government of the People's Republic of China quickly named another child, Gyancain Norbu.
Chinese authorities state that Gedhun Choekyi Nyima has been taken into protective custody, but there is no reference to what, or whom he must be protected from.
The whereabouts of Gedhun Choekyi Nyima are unknown. The Government of Tibet in Exile claims that he and his family continue to be political prisoners, and has termed him the "youngest political prisoner in the world".
According to Chinese government claims, he is attending school and leading a normal life somewhere in China.
The involvement of China in this affair is seen by some as a political ploy to try to gain control over the recognition of the next Dalai Lama, and to strengthen their hold over the future of Tibet and its governance.
China claims however, that their involvement does not break with tradition in that the final decision about the recognition of both the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama traditionally rested in the hands of the Chinese emperor.
