India GOThe 14th Dalai Lama and the Tibetan places of India
བསྟན་འཛིན་རྒྱ་མཚོ
The spiritual leader of the Tibetans, in India since 1959; for his people the living presence of Chenrezig, the bodhisattva of compassion.
Tenzin Gyatso, born Lhamo Thondup on 6 July 1935 in the village of Taktser in Amdo, has lived in India since March 1959, longer than he lived in Tibet. He describes himself as a simple Buddhist monk, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, and since 1960 McLeod Ganj, the hill town above Dharamsala, has been the centre of Tibetan life in exile.
Story
Found at two in a farmhouse in Amdo by monks who had followed a vision in a lake, he was enthroned in Lhasa at four and fled over the Himalaya at twenty-three. His first Indian year was spent in Mussoorie (the Tibetan school and the Happy Valley gompa remain) before the move to Dharamsala; in 2011 he handed political power to an elected government and kept only the teaching. Not the head of Buddhism, nor even of his own Gelug school, but the face by which the world knows the Tibetans.
“My true religion is kindness.”
Kindness, Clarity, and Insight, 1984
Places linked to them
Shedup Choepelling Temple, Happy Valley · Mussoorie Majnu Ka Tilla · Delhi Dhakpo Shedrupling Monastery, Kais · NaggarWhy Dharamsala
He left Lhasa during the 1959 uprising and crossed into India at the end of March. The first months were spent in Mussoorie, where the Tibetan administration in exile was set up on 29 April 1959 and where he first met Nehru. In May 1960 the administration moved to Dharamsala, and Nehru allowed the Dalai Lama and his followers to settle in McLeod Ganj, the hill station above it.
McLeod Ganj is called “Little Lhasa”, because the Tibetan administration in exile has its headquarters there. The Tsuglagkhang, the Dalai Lama’s temple, holds statues of Shakyamuni, Avalokiteshvara and Padmasambhava. In 2011 he handed his political role to an elected leadership, the Central Tibetan Administration, and kept the spiritual one. His office gives Dharamsala as the place where he has lived since 1959.
Tibetan India beyond Dharamsala
The exile left its marks along the whole Himalayan rim and in the capital.
Shedup Choepelling, Mussoorie
In Happy Valley, about 2 km past Library Chowk: one of the first Tibetan temples built in exile, raised by the community in the early 1960s and blessed by the Dalai Lama. Prayer wheels, flags in the wind, a calm hall, no entry fee.
Dhakpo Shedrupling, Kais near Naggar
A working monastic college on the Beas, about 12 km from Naggar, inaugurated by the Dalai Lama in 2005; some 180 monks study philosophy here. Ask before photographing monks and keep quiet during prayers.
Majnu-ka-Tilla, Delhi
The Tibetan quarter of Delhi, settled by refugees in the 1960s: a monastery, momos, thukpa, butter tea and maroon robes in the lanes. Details on the Delhi page.
Buddha Jayanti Park, Delhi
A ridge-forest park with a gilded Buddha in a pavilion on an artificial island, dedicated by the Dalai Lama in October 1993, and a Bodhi tree grown from a Sri Lankan sapling planted in 1964.
Will there be a 15th Dalai Lama?
In 2011 he said he would consult on the question when he was about ninety. On 2 July 2025, days before his 90th birthday, his office published a statement affirming that the institution of the Dalai Lama will continue. It says that the Gaden Phodrang Trust, the Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, “has sole authority to recognize the future reincarnation”, and that its members should consult the heads of the Tibetan Buddhist traditions and carry out the search and recognition “in accordance with past tradition”. His own search, in the 1930s, followed a vision seen at a sacred lake.
Losar, the Tibetan New Year
The year the Dalai Lama’s people keep turns at Losar: new prayer flags on the roofs, butter lamps and monastery prayers. In 2027 it begins on 7 February, by the Tibetan almanac published in Dharamsala.
❓ FAQ
What is the 14th Dalai Lama famous for?
As the spiritual leader of the Tibetans, in India since 1959, for nonviolence (the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989) and for teaching Buddhism around the world. For Tibetans he is the living presence of Chenrezig, the bodhisattva of compassion.
Where does the Dalai Lama live now?
In Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh, according to his office; the Tsuglagkhang, his temple, is in McLeod Ganj above the town.
Why was the Dalai Lama exiled?
He left Lhasa during the 1959 uprising and has lived in India ever since.
Does the Dalai Lama marry?
No. He is a Buddhist monk; his office describes him as “a simple Buddhist monk”.
Is the Dalai Lama the head of all Buddhism?
No. He is a monk of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism, and even that school’s formal head is another office, the Ganden Tripa. Other Buddhist traditions, in Sri Lanka, Thailand or Japan, have their own leaders.