Patron of peace: The Dalai Lama turns 90

LHAMO Dhondup was not yet two when he would pack up his things in a bag as if about to embark on a long journey and exclaim, "I am going to Lhasa!

- MANISH SAIN

It didn't appear anything more than child's curious play to his farming parents until a group of learned men appeared at their doorstep in the small village of Taktser in northeastern Tibet in the late 1930s. The intrigued Buddhist monks didn't take too long to identify the toddler as the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama through tests that involved recognising belongings of his predecessor.

Soon after, the young boy did embark on a long journey away from home that lasted a lifetime and took him from being a child to the spiritual leader of millions.

He is 90 today, the 14th Dalai Lama, the man with the broad smile and crinkling eyes who is amongst the most recognised faces anywhere in the world.

The Dalai Lama, later named Tenzin Gyatso, was born on this day in 1935 in a Tibet struggling to maintain its sovereignty against its neighbour China and eventually losing it in 1951.

As thousands gather in this small hill town, now the headquarters of the Tibetan government in exile, to celebrate the day, the world continues to look at him not only for spiritual guidance but also as a means to end geopolitical tensions in the region. The Dalai Lama, arguably the most popular in the 700 years of the institution, has kept the tenets of Buddhism alive and thriving and also kept up a constant ideological fight for the independence of his homeland.

Apart from religious harmony, nonviolence, and democracy, he has been an advocate of LGBTQ rights, women's rights and voiced concern of environmental problems as well as for the Rohingya Muslims.

The Dalai Lamas are believed by Tibetan Buddhists to be manifestations of Avalokiteshvara or Chenrezig, the Bodhisattva of Compassion and the patron saint of Tibet.