In every case, he chose the correct one.īut the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation hasn’t always been found in Tibet. In his autobiography, “My Land and My People,” the Dalai Lama wrote that he was handed sets of identical or similar items - including rosaries, walking sticks and drums - one of which had belonged to the previous incarnation and one which was ordinary. The son of a farmer, the Dalai Lama was born in a small hamlet in northeastern Tibet, where just 20 families struggled to make a living from the land.Īs a child, he recognized a senior lama who had disguised himself to observe the local children, and successfully identified a number of items belonging to the 13th Dalai Lama. Some of the methods include showing the children items which belong to the previous incarnation.Īccording to the 14th Dalai Lama’s official biography, he was discovered when he was two years old. Once they find a number of candidates, the children are tested to determine whether they are the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama. “There’s a heavy responsibility on these people to get it right,” she said. Then they send out search parties across Tibet, looking for children who are “special” and born within a year of the Dalai Lama’s death, according to Ruth Gamble, an expert in Tibetan religion at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia. Sometimes it is based on signs that the former incarnation gave before he died, at other times top lamas - a monk or priest of varying seniority who teaches Buddhism - will go to a sacred lake in Tibet, Lhamo Lhatso, and meditate until they have a vision of where to search for his successor. The search begins when the previous Dalai Lama passes away. The Dalai Lama has been reincarnated 13 times since 1391, when the first of his incarnates was born, and normally a centuries-old method is used to find the new leader.
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