The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (597 page)

Dalada Maligawa
(shrine of tooth relic)
:

see
TOOTH RELIC TEMPLE
.

 
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Dalai Lama
.

The office of temporal and spiritual leadership of the Tibetan peoples, of which the present holder, Tenzin Gyatso (Bstan-’dzinrgya-mtsho) is the fourteenth. The history of the office begins with Gendun Drub (Dge-’dun-grub-pa, 1391–1475), the third successor of
Tsong Khapa
as head of the
Geluk
school. Gendun Drub was the first member of the Geluk to adopt the
tulku
system of reincarnating
lamas
. His successor was Gendun Gyatso, whose own successor Sonam Gyatso (1543–88) accepted an invitation to renew the Tibetan-Mongolian priest–patron relationship. In a respectful exchange by Lake Kokonor in 1578, Altan Khan gave Sonam Gyatso the Mongolian title ‘Ta le’ (Ocean [of Wisdom]) Lama, which, retrospectively applied to his two predecessors, made Gendun Drub the first ‘Ta le’ Lama (‘Dalai’ being a W. transcription).
The current Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, has based himself in Dharamsala, India, from where he has become well-known internationally, and been styled a ‘god-king’ by the Western press. This potentially misleading term stems from the Tibetan consideration of eminent beings as emanations of
Buddhas
or
bodhisattvas
, and the Dalai Lama in particular as an emanation of
Avalokite
vara
, the bodhisattva of compassion. Among Tibetans, he is more commonly called ‘Gyalwa Rinpoche’ (Precious Eminence), or simply ‘Kundun’ (Presence). An active statesman, Tenzin Gyatso continues to negotiate improved conditions for his people and terms for his own return, and has overseen the transformation of the previous theocratic government into a democratically elected autonomous body (albeit in exile). In 1989 he received the Nobel Peace Prize for his adherence to the Buddhist principle of nonviolence in the Tibetan struggle, although in the 1990s a wing of the Tibetan Youth Congress advocating armed resistance has become more vocal.

 
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(the oppressed), name given, by themselves, to the
untouchables
of Hindu society, about a quarter of the whole. Their organization into a politically coherent group owed much to S.R.
Ambedkar
, and serious riots broke out in 1997 in Maharashtra state when a statue of Ambedkar was desecrated. In 1997, K.R. Narayanan became the first Dalit to be president of India.

 
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Dalmatic
.

A Christian eucharistic
vestment
. It is a decorated tunic reaching to the knees.

 
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Damadam
S
hib Tax
l
(Sikh movement)
: