At just sixteen years of age, the Dalai Lama assumed full political authority over Tibet following China''s invasion of the country in 1950. By the age of twenty-four, after the failed civil uprising in Lhasa against communist China''s occupation of Tibet in 1959, he sought political asylum in India. Resettling in Dharamshala in northern India, he established the Tibetan government-in-exile and rebuilt the Tibetan community. At the same time, he worked tirelessly to preserve the spiritual, cultural and philosophical heritage of Tibetan Buddhism.