Word: lamas
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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When the last Dalai Lama died in 1933, after predicting the future destruction of Tibet, he left no clues. According to custom, however, attendants placed his body in a shrine facing south. Within several days, cloud formations appeared over the northeastern end of the city. A giant star-shaped fungus grew overnight on a pillar in the northeast corner of the Dalai Lama's room. And, several days after his death, the head of the deceased ruler had turned from facing south to facing towards the northeast...
...years later, a lama in the National Assembly received a vision of a house with blue tiles, twisted drainpipes, and a spotted dog. Immediately, thousands of lamas went into prolonged meditation to seek further direction. Soon after, the same lama saw several symbols identifying the region of Tibet where the house was to be found. Guided by this vision and disguised as merchants, a search party of monks traveled 1000 miles northeast to Amdo, where they were led to a house matching the one seen in the vision...
Upon reaching the house, the monks greeted the owners, a farmer and his wife, and requested some tea. As they sat in the kitchen a two-year-old boy ran into the room and hopped onto a monk's lap. The boy correctly called the disguised traveler "a lama of Sera," and identified two other members of his party as well. The child, named Tenzin Gyatso, spoke to the lamas in the court dialect of Lhasa, unknown to anyone in his district...
According to the lamas and to state tradition, this was still insufficient proof of the child's identity. For a more definitive test, the monks placed several of the deceased Dalai Lama's personal possessions before the boy, along with an equal number of skillfully-wrought replicas. The child chose the right item every time. Finally, the lamas examined the child for the eight birthmarks that reputedly identify the Dalai Lama. From large protruding ears and marks like a tiger's skin on his legs to two vestigal bits of skin on his shoulders representing the third and fouth arms...
Forty years and vast oceans of experience later, the Dalai Lama feels that his mission as a spiritual leader extends beyond Tibet. "As long as there are sentient beings to be liberated from suffering and unhappiness, I will work for the sake of all of them," he said last Thursday. Combining inner meditation with outward service, he embodies the central tenets of Tibet. The practice of kindness, compassion, and love for one's enemies, he says, brings a clear realization of the true nature of reality. "Compassion is something very forceful," he said, adding that it is a potent remedy...