Dalai Lama at 90: son of a buckwheat farmer who became a thorn in China’s side – in pictures

The exiled spiritual leader, who turns 90 this week, has met everyone from Nelson Mandela to Lady Gaga while campaigning for autonomy and religious freedom for Tibet

The Dalai Lama aged six. He was born Lhamo Dhondup in 1935 to a family of buckwheat and barley farmers in what is now the northwestern Chinese province of Qinghai. At the age of two, he was deemed by a search party to be the 14th reincarnation of Tibet’s spiritual and temporal leader after identifying several of his predecessor’s possessions.

Photograph: Bettmann/Bettmann Archive

The Dalai-Lama, also known as Tenzin Gyatso (L), meets Chinese leader Mao Zedong, date unclear. China took control of Tibet in 1950 in what it called ‘a peaceful liberation’ and the teenage Dalai Lama assumed a political role shortly after, travelling to Beijing to meet Mao Zedong and other Chinese leaders. Nine years later, fears that the Dalai Lama could be kidnapped fuelled a major rebellion.

Photograph: Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone/Getty Images

The Dalai Lama pictured in 1959 after he fled to India. He settled in Dharamshala, a Himalayan town where he lives in a compound next to a temple ringed by green hills and snow-capped mountains.

Photograph: Marilyn Silverstone/Magnum P

The Dalai Lama arrives at Birla House in Mussoorie, India in April 1959. In India, the Dalai Lama opened up his government-in-exile to ordinary Tibetans with an elected parliament.

Photograph: Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

The Dalai Lama in Birla House Park in May 1959. Thousands of other Tibetans have lived in exile in India since Chinese troops crushed the uprising in the Tibetan capital Lhasa in 1959.

Photograph: Punjab/AFP/Getty Images

The Dalai Lama poses for a photo circa 1965 in India. At prayer celebrations to mark his 90th birthday he said: ‘In the time I have left, I will continue to dedicate myself to the well-being of others as much as possible.’

Photograph: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

The Dalai Lama meets South African anti-apartheid activist and former president Nelson Mandela in 2004. The Dalai Lama has been lauded by his followers for his tireless campaign for greater autonomy for Tibet.

Photograph: Andrew MacColl/Rex Features

American actor Richard Gere, a long-time follower of Tibetan Buddhism, shakes hands with the Dalai Lama in Sicily in 1996. The Dalai Lama was there to receive the honorary citizenship of Palermo.

Photograph: Allesandro Fucarini/taken from picture library

The Dalai Lama enjoys his breakfast on board of a Gandalf Airlines plane moments before landing at Orio al Serio airport in northern Italy in 1999. While China condemns him as a rebel and separatist, the internationally recognised Dalai Lama describes himself as a ‘simple Buddhist monk’.

Photograph: Giuseppe Farinacci/EPA Photo Ansa

The Dalai Lama whispers into the ear of Archbishop Desmond Tutu (R) in Brussels in 2006. The Dalai Lama told Reuters in December that he could live until he was 110. The previous Dalai Lama died earlier than expected at 58.

Photograph: Mark Renders/Getty Images

Dalai Lama prepares to leave in a helicopter in Aubry, France in 2008. He was visiting at the height of the Beijing Olympics, but shelved plans to meet President Nicolas Sarkozy for fear of angering China.

Photograph: Sipa Press/Rex Features

Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama visits a convenience store in Katsuragi, western Japan in 2011 on the way from Koyasan to Sendai, which was devastated by the tsunami. The Dalai Lama held a Buddhist memorial service for the more than 20,000 killed.

Photograph: Kimimasa Mayama/EPA

The feet of Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama at a news conference in Tokyo in 2011.

Photograph: Kim Kyung-Hoon/REUTERS

The Dalai Lama meets then Prince Charles in London in 2012. Beijing said in March that the Dalai Lama was a political exile who had ‘no right to represent the Tibetan people at all’.

Photograph: Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images

The Dalai Lama leaves after visiting a leprosy colony in New Delhi in 2014. Tibetan tradition holds that the soul of a senior Buddhist monk is reincarnated after his death and the Dalai Lama has previously said he could possibly reincarnate in India.

Photograph: Adnan Abidi/REUTERS

President Barack Obama receives a white khata, a silk Tibetan scarf, from the Dalai Lama following their 2014 White House meeting. The US, which faces rising competition from China for global dominance, has repeatedly said it is committed to advancing the human rights of Tibetans.

Photograph: Pete Souza/The White House

The Dalai Lama appears on stage with Patti Smith at Glastonbury in 2015 ahead of his 80th birthday. The singer read a special birthday poem to him before leading the crowd in a rendition of Happy Birthday.

Photograph: Samir Hussein/Redferns/Getty Images

Lady Gaga meets the Dalai Lama in Indianapolis in 2016. She was reportedly added to a list of hostile foreign forces banned by China’s Communist party after she met with him to discuss yoga.

Photograph: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Born This Way Foundation

The Dalai Lama meets supporters in Amsterdam in 2018. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 for keeping the Tibetan cause alive.

Photograph: Koen van Weel/AFP/Getty Images

The Dalai Lama receives a Covid vaccine in India in 2021. ‘Though I am 90 years old, physically I am very healthy,’ he said at prayer celebrations to mark his 90th birthday.

Photograph: Dalai Lama Office Handout/EPA

The Dalai Lama is presented with a giant garland by the organisers of an event commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Bharat Tibet Sahyog Manch at the Tsuglakhang temple in Dharamshala, India, Friday in 2023.

Photograph: Ashwini Bhatia/AP

The Dalai Lama watches a traditional dance performance during an event held for his 90th birthday, at the Main Tibetan Temple in McLeod Ganj, near Dharamsala on 30 June 2025. Draped in traditional maroon and yellow robes, the Dalai Lama sat and listened to speeches and chants of monks, nuns, pilgrims, as well as well-wishers from across the world on Monday.

Photograph: Sanjay Baid/AFP/Getty Images

The Dalai Lama blesses a Buddhist monk during a ceremony marking his 90th birthday on Monday. At the ceremony he indicated that the 600-year-old institution would continue after his death, saying: “As far as the institution of the Dalai Lama, there will be some kind of a framework within which we can talk about its continuation.”

Photograph: Sanjay Baid/AFP/Getty Images