Dalai Lama is a title given by the Tibetan people to the principal spiritual leader of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. The Dalai Lama is also considered the successor in a line of tulkus, who are believed to be incarnations of Avalokiteshvara (Chenrezig in Tibetan), the bodhisattva of Compassion.
The 14th and current Dalai Lama is Tenzin Gyatso. After the annexation of Tibet by the People’s Republic of China, he established the independent Tibetan government in exile in northern India. He retired as political head in 2011 to make way for a democratic government, the Central Tibetan Administration.
The Dalai Lama advocates for the welfare of Tibetans and since the early 1970s has called for the Middle Way approach with China to resolve the Tibet issue peacefully. The Dalai Lama travels worldwide to teach Tibetan Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism, and his Kalachakra teachings and initiations are international events. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 and the Gold Medal of the U.S. Congress in 2006. Time magazine called the Dalai Lama one of the “Children of Mahatma Gandhi” and Gandhi’s spiritual heir to nonviolence.