It developed gradually over several centuries. Also though often of humble origins, sometimes the Dalai Lama could also be the son of rich parents. At times he has been the son of a nomad, of rich parents, of farmers, of a Mongolian chieftain, born in India, Mongolia, different regions of Tibet. There’s no particular pattern, except that so far he has always been reborn as a boy, which had advantages for someone in a position like that in a traditional society like Tibet and just about everywhere else before about the mid to late twentieth century. He’s hinted that if the process continues he may be reborn as a girl in his next rebirth. Also they were recognized in many different ways. Indeed no two times was it exactly the same. The method of recognizing previous possessions is only one of many techniques and only part of the process when it is used, and used only occasionally.

The whole thing makes most sense if you believe in rebirth. If you don’t, it’s hard to make any sense of it at all, how this happened, and why it works. How could they recognize such a young child as a Dalai Lama, born in such diverse places, with no hereditary connection with previous Dalai Lamas, no connection through teachers, no connection of location, no lineage, in most cases recognized at too young an age to judge his aptitude as an adult so not through his intellectual or other abilities, indeed, through none of the things that would normally count as a reason for choosing the next in a line of succession?

I’m not going to attempt to try to make sense of it in any other way but just present it in terms of the rebirths idea, which I also believe myself, though I have no proof of rebirth. I keep an open mind about what happens when you die, but for me rebirth is one of the most likely possibilities. And anyway whether it is true or not, or a partial truth, or how much truth there is in it, there’s no doubt the Tibetans believe in it wholeheartedly and you can’t understand how the office of the Dalai Lama came about without presenting it in this way.

So, here I’m just going to summarize some of the relevant parts of the biographies on this page from the Dalai Lama’s website: Short Biographies of the Previous Dalai Lamas | The 14th Dalai Lama

The first in the sequence of rebirths, now recognized as the Dalai Lama is Gedun Drupa born in 1391, birth name Pema Dorjee. But the name Dalai Lama wasn’t used at the time. He was born to a nomadic family.

“The First Dalai Lama, Gedun Drupa was a great person of immense scholarship, famous for combining study and practice, and wrote more than eight voluminous books on his insight into the Buddha's teachings and philosophy. In 1474, at the age of eighty-four, he died while in meditation at Tashi Lhunpo monastery.”

The second Dalai Lama Gedun Gyatso, born 1475 told his parents as soon as he could speak that he was called Pema Dorjee and that he’d like to live in Tashi Lhunpo monastery. He was recognized as his rebirth age 11. He was born to a farming family.

The third Dalai Lama Sonam Gyatso, born 1543 was the first to be given the name Dalai Lama by the king of Mongolia, a name that has stuck ever since. So far he wasn’t a political leader of Tibet though. He was recognized as the rebirth in the line from Pema Dorjee age 3 by the ruler of Tibet. He was born to a rich family.

The Fourth Dalai Lama was born in 1589 in Mongolia, son of a tribal chieftan. He was recognized as the Dalai Lama at a young age but his parents refused to part with him until he was older, so he had his primary religious education in Mongolia from Tibetan Lamas. He was escorted to Tibet age 12 accompanied by both his parents. At this stage he is still not a political leader.

The fifth Dalai Lama Lobsang Gyatso was born in 1617. First to be shown objects the previous Dalai Lama owned, which he said belonged to him. This is when much of the modern tradition of the Dalai Lama as political and spiritual leader, living in the Potala Palace, first developed. He didn’t live in the Potala Palace, which didn’t exist yet, but he was the one who start the project of building it, which was then used by the next Dalai Lama.

“The Fifth Dalai Lama was recognized at a time when Tibet was in political turmoil. However, all this uncertainty was laid to rest by Gushir Khan, the chief of the Qoshot Mongols and in 1642, the Dalai Lama was enthroned in the main hall of Shigatse as both the spiritual and political leader of Tibet. In 1645, the Dalai Lama held a meeting with high officials of Gaden Phodrang on the construction of the Potala Palace on the Red Hill, where the 33rd King of Tibet Songtsen Gampo had built a red fort. In the same year, the construction started and it took almost forty-three years to complete.”

The sixth Dalai Lama Tsangyang Gyatso was born in 1682 in present day Arunachal Pradesh, India. Unlike the other Dalai Lamas he had no interest in taking the vows of a bikkshu. He lived in the Potala Palace but spent his days with friends in the park behind it, and nights in the taverns and had many girl friends and is renowned as a great poet and writer.

The seventh Dalai Lama Kelsang Gyatso was born in 1708 and returned to the theme of being a fully ordained monk, and like the first, was an expert on the sutras and tantras, academically gifted, and wrote many books on Tibetan Buddhism. He was also a great poet, with a focus on spiritual themes.

There were seven more Dalai Lamas after that including the present, but I’ve got to the point where most of the modern traditions were already established. The fourteenth Dalai Lama was exiled from Tibet and the Potala Palace after the Chinese occupation of Tibet, and renounced his position as political leader of Tibet some years ago.

He has said that he will not take rebirth in any area controlled by the Chinese so if he does have a recognized next rebirth, it will be outside of Tibet, which has happened in the past. He would leave instructions before he dies, and he would be recognized by other high Lamas as a young child. Interestingly, he has said that there is a chance he could take rebirth as a woman, if so she’d be the first female Dalai Lama in the lineage.

There are female lineages of rebirths, in Tibet, women practitioners of renown, though usually with women taking rebirth as women if I understand right, for some reason. In Tibet with still rather out of date traditional attitudes to women, as they are understood now, it would have been harder for a Tibetan woman to practice in many ways. (Remember even in Europe we had such attitudes right up to the 1970s and traces of them to this day perhaps), Probably much less so now and especially if born outside of Tibet. The Dalai Lama has been involved in movements to promote equality of women in Tibetan Buddhist practices.

So anyway if he does take rebirth again when he dies, it will be interesting to see who he takes rebirth as.

But he might also choose to end this practice. If so there will be no recognition of a rebirth of the Dalai Lama. Just as it began, so the lineage could end. It wouldn’t mean that there is no rebirth of him, necessarily, rather, that there is no child who would be recognized as the rebirth of the Dalai Lama. Nobody would know who he or she was in a previous life, which is the usual situation for most of us.

You can read the biographies of the full lineage of the previous 13 Dalai Lamas here Short Biographies of the Previous Dalai Lamas | The 14th Dalai Lama

And the story of the recognition of the current fourteenth Dalai Lama here

Birth to Exile | The 14th Dalai Lama

The current Dalai Lama age four as a young Tibetan.

The tiny farming hamlet Takster in Amdo province, where the fourteenth Dalai Lama was born to subsistence farmers in 1935 (Photo/Diego Alonso/Tibet Images) -

These photos are from Birth to Exile | The 14th Dalai Lama