7 The 100 Most Influential World Leaders of All Time 7crowds surrounding the Dalai Lama’s summer palace to
protect him. During the ensuing chaos, the Dalai Lama
(disguised as a Tibetan soldier) escaped under cover of
darkness on March 17. Accompanied by a small party of his
family and teachers and escorted by guerrilla fighters, the
Dalai Lama made his way on foot and horseback across
the Himalayas, pursued by Chinese troops. On March 31
he and his escorts arrived in India, where the Indian gov-
ernment offered them asylum.
Life in Exile
In the wake of the Lhasa uprising and the Chinese consoli-
dation of power across Tibet, tens of thousands of Tibetans
followed the Dalai Lama into exile. In 1960 he established
his government-in-exile in Dharamsala, a former British
hill station in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, where
he continued to reside. The government of India, how-
ever, was reluctant to allow all the Tibetan refugees to
concentrate in one region and thus created settlements
across the subcontinent, where the Tibetans established
farming communities and built monasteries. The welfare
of the refugees and the preservation of Tibetan culture in
exile, especially in light of reports of the systematic
destruction of Tibetan institutions during China’s Cultural
Revolution (1966 –76), were the primary concerns of the
Dalai Lama during this period.
The Dalai Lama traveled little during the early part of
his exile and published only two books, an introduction to
Buddhism and an autobiography. In later years, however,
he traveled quite extensively, delivering addresses at col-
leges and universities, meeting with political and religious
leaders, and lecturing on Buddhism.
His activities focused on two main goals, one of which
was to build and sustain international awareness of the