July 6 — is the birthday of the 14th Dalai Lama. This is the only Buddhist holiday celebrated according to the European calendar.
Buddhists revere His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama as the earthly incarnation of Avalokiteshvara (Chenrezig) — of the Buddha of Compassion.
The Dalai Lama's birthday is celebrated by Tibetan Buddhists and all followers of Tibetan Buddhism, who are united by the recognition of the Dalai Lama as their spiritual leader. On this day, prayers for the longevity of the Dalai Lama are read in churches and best wishes are addressed to him.
According to Buddhist legend, after his physical death, the Dalai Lama moves into the body of one of the newborns. Thus, all the Dalai Lamas who lived on earth are, in fact, the same being, changing aged bodies for convenience into new ones, and at the same time preserving the single memory of a highly developed being. There are a number of special signs by which monks are looking for a new incarnation of the Dalai Lama, whose birth usually takes place in Tibet, China or Mongolia.
The 13th Dalai Lama left a prediction describing the exact location of his next birth, which was then confirmed by traditional methods. In 1937, a special group of lamas came to the village of Taktser, looking for a new, reborn Dalai Lama. In her book «My Land and My People», the 14th Dalai Lama recalls: «Little children who are rebirths usually remember things and people from their previous lives. Some of them can read religious texts, although no one has yet taught them this. Everything I told the lama gave him reason to believe that he had finally found the rebirth he was looking for».
After appropriate tests, the four-year-old Tenjing Gyamtsho was recognized as a Reborn of the 13th Dalai Lama. The eastern region of Tibet, where the village of Taktser was located, was under Chinese control. After lengthy negotiations between the Tibetan government and the local administration, in October 1939 His Holiness left his parents' home for Lhasa. On February 22, 1940, his enthronement ceremony took place and the 4-year-old boy was proclaimed the head of all Tibetan Buddhists.
His Holiness Tenjing Gyamtsho studied according to the traditional system in Potala and Nor-bu Ling — winter and summer residences of the Dalai Lama. His training program included «five big» and «five small sciences». The five big sciences — are logic, Tibetan art and culture, Sanskrit, medicine, Buddhist philosophy. The five minor sciences — are poetry, music and dramatic art, astrology and literature. At the age of 24, the Dalai Lama took multi-stage exams.
The final exams took place in Jokhang —, the first Buddhist temple in Tibet, founded in 641. The exams were traditionally timed to coincide with the annual New Year's Monlam Chhenmo, the largest prayer festival. Tenjing Gyamtsho passed his exams brilliantly in the presence of 20,000 scholar-monks and received the highest title of Doctor of Theology (Geshe Lharamba).