Dalai Lama Enthroned: Fifteen-Year-Old Leads Tibet
Fifteen years old. That's how young Tenzin Gyatso was when Tibet's government handed him full political power — skipping the usual regency entirely because China's army had just invaded. The emergency forced the decision. A teenager suddenly shouldered a nation. He'd flee into exile nine years later, establishing a Tibetan government in Dharamsala, India, that still operates today. And that "temporary" exile? It's lasted over seven decades. The boy enthroned in crisis became the world's most recognized face of nonviolent resistance.
November 17, 1950
76 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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