The Dalai Lama is believed to be the manifestation of Avalokitesvara, the Bodhisattva of Compassion and the protector deity of Tibet, who chooses to re-incarnate to serve and help ease the suffering of the people. The successive Dalai Lamas, from the fifth to the present 14th, served as both the temporal leader of the Tibetan people and the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism.