Buddhists believe that the Dalai Lama is the reincarnation of the Buddhist god Chenrezig. Dalai Lama means "Ocean of Wisdom." In 1933 the 13th Dalai Lama, Thupton Gyatso died of an illness and the ministers of Tibet made plans to find the next Dalai Lama. Until the next Dalai Lama was born, a man named Kumbela was supposed to be the leader. Many people were jealous of Kumbela and were secretly making campaigns to eliminate Kumbela and rise the power to themselves. One of these campaigns accused Kumbela of killing Thupten Gyatso. Soon he was accused of not reporting the 13th Dalai Lama’s illness quickly. After awhile the campaigns got too strong and Kumbela and his allies were forced to leave Lhasa. After lots of debate, they made Reting Reponche, a 24 year old monk the leader until the 14th Dalai Lama was found. Soon, they started their search for number 14, who they believed was reborn in Tibet.
Reting Reponche believed that Lake Lhamoi Lhatso could reveal sacred visions to the faithful. So he took the 10 day trip to the sacred lake, insearch of more clues of where the new Dalai Lama was. For days, he mediated and prayed at the sacred lake until his mind saw a monastery with with a turquoise roof, and a house with strange gutters behind a poplar tree.
Reting Renponche sent many groups in search, and sent Kyitsang Renponche and 2 other monks to the Amdo region of Tibet. After many months of search and travel, Kyitsang Renponche saw a monastery with a turquoise roof! Then he went in search for the house with the strange gutters. Before Kyitsang Renponche could search for candidates of the reincarnation, they had to seek permission from the local Chinese governor, Ma Pu-Feng. When they talked, Ma Pu-Feng agreed, and they could carry out their search.
Kyitsang chose three candidates. The first one died before he came, the second one was too shy, and the third was Lhamo Thondup. Kyitsang Renponche was disguised as a servant while one of his helpers was disguised as his lord. That way, Kyitsang Renponche could watch Lhamo Thondup closer, without being bothered. One day, Kyitsang Renponche put items that belonged to the 13th Dalai Lama’s, and items that were the same, but not the 13th Dalai Lama’s next to each other. If Lhamo Thondup chose all of the 13th Dalai Lama’s items as his favorite, they would know he would be the next Dalai Lama. Lhamo Thondup quickly chose all of the 13th Dalai Lama’s items and that proved, Lhamo Thondop was the 14th Dalai Lama.
Kyitsang sent a note to Lhasa and got one back a few days later. Ma Pu-Feng soon found out and forced Kyitsang to pay huge amounts of money before he would let them leave with Lhamo. Kyitsang, Lhamo and Lhamo’s family had to stay at the monastary for a year, until they could pay Ma Pu-Feng.