The 14th Dalai Lama has stayed in Tibet his entire life.
The 14th Dalai Lama ( [ ˈdɑːlaɪ_ˈlɑːmə ] ( US ) , [ ˌdælaɪ_ˈlɑːmə ] ( UK ) ( religious name : Tenzin Gyatso , shortened from Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso , born Lhamo Thondup , 6 July 1935 ) is the current Dalai Lama . From the time of the 5th Dalai Lama to 1959 , the central government of Tibet , the Ganden Phodrang , invested the position of Dalai Lama with temporal duties . The 14th Dalai Lama was born in Taktser village , Amdo , Tibet ( was administratively in Qinghai province , Republic of China ) , and was selected as the tulku of the 13th Dalai Lama in 1937 and formally recognized as the 14th Dalai Lama at a public declaration near the town of Bumchen in 1939 . His enthronement ceremony as the Dalai Lama was held in Lhasa on 22 February 1940 , and he eventually assumed full temporal ( political ) duties on 17 November 1950 , at the age of 15 , after the People 's Republic of China 's invasion of Tibet . During the 1959 Tibetan uprising , the Dalai Lama fled to India , where he currently lives as a refugee .