How does the Dalai Lama affect the Tibetan Buddhism religion?!?
The Dalai Lama is the title given many centuries ago to the secular leader of Tibet. At the same time, people have come to see how most the various rebirths of the Dalai Lama were highly realized Buddhist masters. So much so, that many Tibetans consider him to be a fully enlightened Buddha. When many Tibetans fled Tibet after the occupation by China, the Dalai Lama was one of the refugees. As Tibetan Buddhism became popular in the West, many westerners heard of the Dalai Lama. Since then, as a Tibetan leader in exile, he was awarded the Nobel peace prize for his efforts to a peaceful solution for Tibet. In that way, he became the best-known Buddhist world-wide. Put on top of that his leadership of the Tibetans, some people now believe he is like a Buddhist pope, but nothing is further from the truth. He is not even the leader of the tradition within Tibetan Buddhism that he is part of. Strictly spoken, his influence on Tibetan Buddhism is very small; it is a tradition of over 1000 year
