Carry Kindness
From Highlights for Children
By Whitney Stewart

When I looked the Dalai Lama in the eyes for the first time, I realized that I was talking to a man unlike any I had ever met. The day before our meeting, I had seen him—the leader of the Tibetan people—sitting on a high seat in his monastery, giving a speech to Tibetan refugees living in exile. I couldn't understand his spoken language, but I could understand his soft voice and long grin. Once during the four hours that I stood and watched him, he gave me a smile that went right through me and made me laugh out loud.

I had traveled more than 7,300 miles to interview this man who is now so well known for his promotion of peace. I was ready with a list of questions, but as soon as we started to talk about his life and his ideas, I was listening so hard that I forgot to look down at my notes. Here's what I learned about how the Dalai Lama was discovered at the age of two and how he matured as a leader.

 Two-year-old Lhamo Dhondup jumped eagerly into the monk's lap. The small boy had never met the monk, but when he saw the man seated in his parents' kitchen, Lhamo Dhondup acted as if he had always known him. The other monks smiled. "Yes," they thought. "This must be the boy." But they had to be sure.

The first monk took out a string of prayer beads that had belonged to the thirteenth Dalai Lama, the political and religious leader of Tibet who had died a few years earlier. In his other hand, he held out another string of beads. Lhamo Dhondup reached for the ones that had belonged to the former Dalai Lama.

In this way, the monks tested the little boy-first with prayer beads, then a walking stick, then a special drum used for spiritual rituals. Each time, two objects were held out. Each time, from the objects held before him, the boy chose the one that had belonged to the Dalai Lama.

To the monks, this meant that the boy remembered the objects from his previous life as the thirteenth Dalai Lama. When Lhamo Dhondup had passed all the tests the monks had for him, they knew they had found Tibet's new leader.

Dalai Lama is the traditional title of the political and religious leader of Tibet. Tibetans believe that when the Dalai Lama dies, his spirit is born again in another body, through a process called reincarnation. No one knows for sure when or where the new Dalai Lama will be born, so it is the job of several wise spiritual teachers to go from their monasteries and find him. To find the right boy, they follow directives revealed to them in prayer and meditation.

Lhamo Dhondup was born into a poor farming family in 1935; but when he was four years old, the monks who had identified him as the Dalai Lama took him to live in the beautiful Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet's capital city. There he was given the official title of Dalai Lama. His family was given a house to live in nearby.

Soon after that the young Dalai Lama became a Buddhist monk. His hair was shaved off and he was dressed in maroon robes. But even though his life was very formal now, the Dalai Lama had some fun. The Potala Palace, a quarter of a mile long, has more than a thousand rooms and dozens of spiral staircases. It became the perfect place for boyish tricks and games of hide-and-seek. Monks had to run after the boy and find him in one of the many dark corners of the palace. And he loved to slip and glide across the long, freshly polished floors.

He also had toys-gifts that were sent to him by people from around the world: a train set, toy soldiers, model planes. But along with his games, the Dalai Lama followed a rigorous study schedule. He was schooled in Buddhism, philosophy, logic, language, the arts, poetry, and medicine. For years the Dalai Lama studied-until he developed a true love of learning that has stayed with him ever since.

As a young man governing Tibet, the Dalai Lama was well loved by his people-but he was secluded from them, and only a few had a chance to meet him. He governed Tibet from a distance, through a network of political and religious officials.

Then, in 1959, when the Dalai Lama was twenty-four, his life changed. Communist China invaded Lhasa and took control of Tibet. The Dalai Lama was forced to flee into exile. But he was so loved by his people that he was protected during his escape by both rich and poor—and he was followed into exile by more than 1oo,ooo Tibetans.

In Dharamsala , India, where the Dalai Lama lives today, he set up a government in exile. Now, almost every day, he meets with refugees who have recently escaped from Tibet. He consoles them with tender affection when they can't hold back their pained sobbing. Today, as he teaches the Tibetan refugees who live near him in Dharamsala, he fosters a bond of understanding with the Tibetan people that no previous Dalai Lama could ever have achieved.

Over the years, as the Dalai Lama has lived in exile, many of his countrymen in Tibet have been killed by Chinese forces and much of the art, language, religion, and wealth of his country has been destroyed. Despite all this, he has never once encouraged the use of I violence to save Tibet. Instead, he has repeatedly invited the Chinese government to discuss the problems of his people and his country. He believes the only way back to peace is to act always with kindness and compassion. Kindness and compassion, the Dalai Lama says, bring calmness of mind and spiritual peace. Only personal calmness and peace, he believes, can lead to peace in the world.