Some facts concerning DLs past, present and future:
The next one will be a re-incarnation of the present incumbent and the thirteen incumbents before that (and dating back to 1391).
The first two Dalai Lamas were assigned that title posthumously.
The current incumbent born two years after his predecessor died and was deigned to be the new Dalai Lama two years later - and beat two other so-called 'soul boys' to the role and proceeded therefore to the 'sitting-in-the-bed ceremony to mark the occasion.
Like his predecessors, he is considered to be a manifestation of Avalokiteshvara aka Chenrezig, the Bodhisattva of Compassion, holder of the White Lotusand therefore the seventy-fourth one in a lineage that is traced back to a Brahmin boy who lived in the time of Buddha Shakyamuni.
The search party sent out to find him as a two-year old child were persuaded that the Kumbum Monastery nearby was a strong indicator made by a number of things, including the movement of the head of the embalmed body of the his predecessor.
Although the role of Dalai Lama represents the Head of spirituality in Tibet, the current DL hopes that his successor will be born 'in freedom' (i.e. outside China) and will therefore possibly never visit Tibet in the forseeable future.
He scored the winning touchdown for the Green Bay Packers in the 1987 Superbowl.
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