Tibetan Buddhism represents the Mahayana form, but it contains a lot of material from Tibet's early Bon religion:  rituals, magic, and mediums that can be classified as samism. The horrible-looking gods of this ancient religion have been transformed into “guardians of Buddhist doctrine” and can be seen at the doors of temples.

  In the 5th century AD. began to build Buddhist monasteries in Tibet Tsongkhapa (1357-1419) made a kind of Reformation. His new school was  Gelupga or "virtuous" or "yellow hats". This school still dominates  Tibetan Buddhism. Within this school, the Dalai Lama system was born.

Another non-reformed school also survived: Nyingma, or "old," or "red hats." This school is said to be mainly the Buddhism that once came from India. The other two schools are kagyu and sakya

The name Lamanism is known only in the West. The word lama means master or teacher. Tibetans themselves use the word lama only for very high-ranking monks. Such was Milarepa, for example  (1052-1135)  , whose texts are still widely used (also in Finnish).

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The Dalai Lama

The leader of the lamas is the Dalai Lama. He has always lived in Potala Monastery in Lhasa, Tibet. The Dalai Lamas are understood to be incarnations of the previous lamas, i.e. reincarnations. When the previous Dalai Lama dies, one begins to look for a son who would be the incarnation of the dead Lama. (Gets a good idea of the well-known film: The Little Buddha or the Kundun) Even the present 14. Dalai Lama was discovered in this way. For example, the candidate will have to identify objects belonging to the previous Dalai Lama.

Current  14. The Dalai lama is called  Tenzin Gyatso (b. 1935) .He  had to flee Lhasa to the Indian side in 1959 when the Chinese Communists took over Tibet.

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      POTALA MONASTERY   

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Especially the Chinese Cultural Revolution  the systematic destruction of Buddhism began. Today there are only a few monasteries left, which used to be about a couple of thousand from Dharamsala  (India) has come  The center of the Tibetan refugee government, which also receives a lot of tourists, as the Dalai Lama has become a great spiritual and ethical teacher known all over the world, who has always run the affairs of his own country peacefully, without violence. From these merits he received  1989 Nobel Peace Prize, what  China could not accept.

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The Dalai Lama has visited Finland a few times, for the first time in 1988, when the event was held at the Great Church in Helsinki. I guess everything even fit inside, so the church was so full.  The presidents of Finland have not wanted to organize  formal meetings with him.