Fun Facts About Dalai Lama
- The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, loved taking apart and repairing clocks, watches, and cars as a child. He has said that if he had not been raised a monk, he would probably have been an engineer.[1]
- According to the search lore, the two-year-old future Dalai Lama recognized a lama disguised as a servant and, in tests, always picked the 13th Dalai Lama's belongings.[1]
- Before the boy Dalai Lama could travel to Lhasa, warlord Ma Bufang and Kumbum Monastery demanded a ransom of 100,000 Chinese dollars in silver.[1]
- At 11 the Dalai Lama met Austrian mountaineer Heinrich Harrer, who became his tutor about the world outside Lhasa. They remained friends until Harrer's death in 2006.[1]
- The Dalai Lama advises Buddhists that if science conclusively shows a Buddhist claim to be false, they must accept science and abandon the claim.[1]
- When Paul McCartney wrote in 2009 to ask why he was not a vegetarian, the Dalai Lama replied that his doctors told him he must eat meat.[1]
- The Dalai Lama and Elvis Presley were born in the same year, 1935.[1][2][3][4]
- Dalai Lama was alive at the same time as Rudyard Kipling — their lives overlapped for 1 year (1935–1936).[1][2][5][6]
The 14th Dalai Lama is the current Dalai Lama, the highest spiritual leader and head of Tibetan Buddhism. He served as the resident spiritual and temporal leader of Tibet before 1959, and subsequently led the Tibetan government in exile represented by the Central Tibetan Administration in Dharamshala, India.[1]
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Questions About Dalai Lama
When was Dalai Lama born?
Dalai Lama was born on July 6, 1935, and is alive today.
How old is Dalai Lama?
Dalai Lama was born on July 6, 1935, and turned 91 on July 6, 2026.
What is Dalai Lama known for?
Dalai Lama is known for: Tibetan spiritual leader, Nobel Peace Prize. The 14th Dalai Lama is the current Dalai Lama, the highest spiritual leader and head of Tibetan Buddhism. He served as the resident spiritual and temporal leader of Tibet before 1959, and subsequently led the Tibetan government in exile represented by the Central Tibetan Administration in Dharamshala, India.
Who was alive at the same time as Dalai Lama?
Dalai Lama's closest contemporary was Noam Chomsky. Their lives overlapped for 91 years.
Sources
- 14th Dalai Lama — Wikipedia. Text available under CC BY-SA 4.0
- Dalai Lama (Q17293) — Wikidata
- Elvis Presley — Wikipedia
- Elvis Presley (Q303) — Wikidata
- Rudyard Kipling — Wikipedia
- Rudyard Kipling (Q34743) — Wikidata
- Portrait: The Dalai Lama in 2012.jpg — Wikimedia Commons. Christopher Michel, CC BY-SA 4.0