Buddhism in Five Minutes - Elizabeth J. Harris
43. What is the Role of the Dalai Lama?
Buddhism in Five Minutes - Elizabeth J. Harris
Cathy Cantwell [+]
University of Oxford and University of Kent
Cathy Cantwell is an Associate Faculty Member at the Oriental Institute, University of Oxford, and an Honorary Research Fellow at the School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent. She has specialized in Tibetan and Himalayan tantric rituals of all periods from the tenth century CE, including text critical and historical analysis, as well as ethnographic study of contemporary rituals. She was President of the UK Association for Buddhist Studies, 2015–2021.
Description
The Dalai Lama is sometimes described in Western sources as a “god-king,” or sometimes depicted as a kind of Buddhist Pope. These presentations indicate something of the Dalai Lama’s significance in Tibet—his spiritually advanced status, his political centrality, and the religious institution associated with him—yet, in many ways, they are misleading.