What is a dalai lama?
The Dalai Lama is a very high reincarnated lama in Tibet. A “lama” simply means “[religious] teacher”, like the word “guru” in India, and a reincarnated lama is a lama that is considered so advanced in his wisdom and spiritual realizations as to be able to choose his next reincarnation, which means every time a Dalai Lama dies, he gives some clues about how to find his next body, and after a couple of years they find, test and recognize a small child that is then believed to be the continuation of the dead master. There are many different Buddhist masters in Tibet that continue their work from life to life in this way, not only the Dalai Lama, although he is the most famous and also the most important one. Spiritually he is also considered a manifestation of the Bodhisattva of compassion (bodhisattva = enlightened being), which is kind of a personification of enlightened compassion. This Bodhisattva of compassion, Chenrezig in Tibetan, is also seen as a protector of Tibet and all the T
