The Dalai Lama Tulku lineage began in the 1430s with the first tulku Gendun Drupa, a student of Tsongkhapa. More than a hundred years later, the title of Dalai Lama was given to the tulku lineage by Altan Khan, the first Mongolian Shunyi King during the Ming dynasty. He offered it in appreciation to the foremost spiritual leader of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism, Sonam Gyatso, who was presented the spiritual title of Dalai Lama in 1578 at Yanghua Monastery. At that time, Sonam Gyatso had just given teachings to the Khan, and thus the spiritual title of Dalai Lama was therefore also given to the entire tulku lineage. Sonam Gyatso became the 3rd Dalai Lama while the first two tulkus in the lineage, the 1st Dalai Lama and the 2nd Dalai Lama, were posthumously awarded the same title.
The Central Tibetan Administration is the Tibetan government in exile, based in Dharamshala, India. It is composed of a judiciary branch, a legislative branch, and an executive branch, and offers support and services to the Tibetan exile community.
Chushi Gangdruk was a Tibetan guerrilla group. Formally organized on 16 June 1958, the Chushi Gangdruk fought the forces of the People's Republic of China (PRC) from 1956 until 1974 when the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) withdrew its support for the guerrilla group.
Reting Rinpoche was a title held by abbots of Reting Monastery, a Buddhist monastery in central Tibet.
Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme was a Tibetan senior official who assumed various military and political responsibilities both before and after 1951 in Tibet. He is often known simply as Ngapo in English sources.
The Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies, formerly called Central University for Tibetan Studies (CUTS), is a Deemed University founded in Sarnath, Varanasi, India, in 1967, as an autonomous organisation under Union Ministry of Culture. The CIHTS was founded by Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru in consultation with Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, with the aim of educating Tibetan youths in exile and Himalayan border students as well as with the aim of retranslating lost Indo-Buddhist Sanskrit texts that now existed only in Tibetan, into Sanskrit, to Hindi, and other modern Indian languages.
Tempa Tsering.
The Sikyong is the political leader of the Central Tibetan Administration, a Tibetan exile organisation in India also known as the Tibetan Government-in-Exile based on the 2011 Charter of Tibetans-in-exile. The title was created in 2012 after the 14th Dalai Lama decided not to assume any political and administrative authority as the head of the Tibetan Administration for Tibetans-in-exile.
Tsepon Wangchuk Deden Shakabpa was a Tibetan nobleman, scholar, statesman and former Finance Minister of the government of Tibet.
The Tibetan Parliament in Exile (TPiE), officially the Parliament of the Central Tibetan Administration, is the unicameral and highest legislative organ of the Central Tibetan Administration, the government-in-exile of the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. It was established and is based in Dharamshala, India. The creation of this democratically elected body has been one of the major changes that the 14th Dalai Lama brought about in his efforts to introduce a democratic system of administration.
The Kashag was the governing council of Tibet during the rule of the Qing dynasty and post-Qing period until the 1950s. It was created in 1721, and set by Qianlong Emperor in 1751 for the Ganden Phodrang in the 13-Article Ordinance for the More Effective Governing of Tibet. In that year the Tibetan government was reorganized after the riots in Lhasa of the previous year. The civil administration was represented by the Council (Kashag) after the post of Desi was abolished by the Qing imperial court. The Qing imperial court wanted the 7th Dalai Lama to hold both religious and administrative rule, while strengthening the position of the High Commissioners.
Lobsang Sangay is a Tibetan-American politician in exile who was Kalon Tripa of the Tibetan Administration in India from 2011 to 2012, and Sikyong of the Central Tibetan Administration in India from 2012 to 2021.
Lodi Gyaltsen Gyari Rinpoche, Kasur Lodi Gyari or "as he is universally known to the Tibetan-speaking world, Gyari Rinpoche" was a Tibetan politician, and journalist who served as the 14th Dalai Lama's special envoy to the United States. Exiled to India in 1959, he was also the executive chairman of the International Campaign for Tibet.
Protests and uprisings in Tibet against the government of the People's Republic of China have occurred since 1950, and include the 1959 uprising, the 2008 uprising, and the subsequent self-immolation protests.
Tethong Tenzin Namgyal is a Tibetan politician and a former Prime Minister of Central Tibetan Administration.
The Tibet Bureau in Paris, one of the offices of the official representation of the 14th Dalai Lama and of the Tibetan government in exile, is in charge of France, the Iberian Peninsula, the Maghreb and the Benelux countries. Founded in September 1992 it acts as an Embassy.
Chamdowa Tsawabomei Shangri Lhagyal (1921–1984) was a Tibetan resistance fighter against Chinese occupying forces in 1958–59. He was one of the commanders of the Chushi Gangdruk guerrillas, and fled to India in April 1959 shortly after the arrival there of the 14th Dalai Lama.
Lobsang Nyandak, sometimes written Lobsang Nyendak also called Lobsang Nyandak Zayul is a Tibetan diplomat and politician. born in 1965 in Kalimpong, India where he performed his studies in Herbertpur and at Panjab University in Chandigarh. There, he held functions at Tibetan Youth Congress before becoming the founding Executive Director of the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy. Member of the National Democratic Party of Tibet, he was elected deputy and was selected as a minister by Samdhong Rinpoche, the first elected Kalon Tripa of Central Tibetan Administration (CTA). He then was the Representative of the 14th Dalai Lama to the Americas and became president of The Tibet Fund.
Tibet–India relations are said to have begun during the spread of Buddhism to Tibet from India during the 6th century AD. In 1959, the Dalai Lama fled to India after the failed 1959 Tibetan uprising. Since then, Tibetans-in-exile have been given asylum in India, with the Indian government accommodating them into 45 residential settlements across 10 states in the country, creating the Tibetan diaspora. From around 150,000 Tibetan refugees in 2011, the number fell to 85,000 in 2018, according to government data. Many Tibetans are now leaving India to go back to Tibet and other countries such as United States or Germany. The Government of India, soon after India's independence in 1947, treated Tibet as a de facto independent country. However, more recently India's policy on Tibet has been mindful of Chinese sensibilities, and has recognized Tibet as a part of China.
Lobsang Tashi, also known as Khenchen Lobsang Tashi (1897–1966) was a Tibetan politician who was a senior monastic official and the monastic prime minister (sileun) of the Tibetan government during the early Chinese occupation of Tibet. After the departure of the 14th Dalai Lama in 1959, he was incarcerated in Drapchi Prison where he died in 1966.
