"Is the Dalai Lama a type of llama?"

Definitions of Dalai Lama on the Web:

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(1935-): Dalai Lama (1935-): The 14th Dalai Lama is recognized by the great majority of the Tibetan people as their top spiritual and political leader. As a spiritual leader, he is the 14th reincarnation of the spirit of the Buddhist Bodhisattva of Compassion Chenrezig (Guanyin in Chinese). As political leader, he fled to India in 1959 believing his life to be in danger from a Chinese coup. A winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, he now makes his headquarters in Dharamsala in Northwest India. While decried in China as a "splittist," he has become a powerful voice for the Tibetan community in exile.
www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/teach/china/4.html
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Dalai Lama is the title given to an individual who is the spiritual and political leader of the Tibetan people. He is believed to be the current incarnation of a long line of Tulkus, or Buddhist Masters, who have become exempt from the wheel of death and rebirth. These ascended masters have chosen of their own free will to be reborn to this plane in order to teach humanity. A Lama (meaning "Teacher") is a title given to many different ranks of Tibetan Buddhist clergy.

Between the 17th century and 1959, the Dalai Lama was the head of the Tibetan Government, administering a large portion of the country from the capital Lhasa. Since 1959, the Dalai Lama has presided over the Central Tibetan Administration in exile from India. The Dalai Lama is often thought to be the head of the Gelug School, but this position officially belongs to the Ganden Tripa, which is a temporary position appointed by the Dalai Lama (who in practice exerts more influence).

Tibetans usually call the Dalai Lama by the epithets Gyalwa Rinpoche, meaning "Precious Victor", or Yeshe Norbu, meaning "Wish-fulfilling Jewel." He is often referred to simply as "His Holiness" (HH), or "His Holiness The Dalai Lama".

The title "Dalai Lama" was bestowed by the Mongolian ruler Altan Khan upon Sonam Gyatso, the 3rd Dalai Lama, in 1578. Sonam Gyatso was invited to visit Amdo (in modern Qinghai province) by Altan Khan, whose Tumed Mongol tribe had an ever increasing presence there, even after the peace with the Chinese Ming Dynasty in 1571. Upon his arrival, the Khan addressed Sonam Gyatso in Mongol by the name of Dalai Lama, dalai being the Mongolian equivalent of the Tibetan gyatso ("ocean"). Altan, knowing that the lama's predecessor had also the word gyatso in his name, mistook it for a family name; and this 'mistake' has been perpetuated. Hence, the origin of the title of Dalai Lama since given to all the reincarnations of the Grand Lama. This interpretation of the name Dalai Lama has been confirmed by Tenzin Gyatso, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama: "So I don't really agree that the Mongols actually conferred a title. It was just a translation." However, the extended title conferred by Altan Khan was "Dalai Lama Vajradhara," the latter a Sanskrit word meaning "holder of the thunderbolt." This relationship between the Mongol ruler and the Gelug Tibetan lama is also historically significant, as it marks the beginning of the Mongol-Tibetan alliance and a mass conversion of Mongols from traditional shamanism to Tibetan Buddhism.
Sonam Gyatso was an Abbot at the Drepung Monastery who was widely considered one of the most eminent lama of his time. Although Sonam Gyatso became the first lama to hold the title "Dalai Lama" as described above, as he was the third member of his lineage he became known as the "Third Dalai Lama." The previous two titles were conferred posthumously upon his earlier incarnations.
Yonten Gyatso(1589 – 1616), the 4th Dalai Lama and a non-Tibetan, was the grandson of Altan Khan.
Verhaegen (2002: p.5-6) states that the tulku tradition of the Dalai Lama has evolved into, and been inaugurated as, an institution and is recognized as a "cornerstone of Tibetan identity and culture":
The institution of the Dalai Lama has become, over the centuries, a central focus of Tibetan cultural identity; "a symbolic embodiment of the Tibetan national character." Today, the Dalai Lama and the office of the Dalai Lama have become focal points in their struggle towards independence and, more urgently, cultural survival. The Dalai Lama is regarded as the principal incarnation of Chenrezig (referred to as Avalokiteshvara in India), the bodhisattva of compassion and patron deity of Tibet. In that role the Dalai Lama has chosen to use peace and compassion in his treatment of his own people and his oppressors. In this sense the Dalai Lama is the embodiment of an ideal of Tibetan values and a cornerstone of Tibetan identity and culture.
Tibetans address the Dalai Lama as Gyalwa Rinpoche ('Precious Victor'), Kundun ('Presence') Yishin Norbu ('Wishfulfilling Gem'), and so on.
The Fifth Dalai Lama, with the support of Gushri Khan (1582-1655), a Mongol ruler of Kokonor, united Tibet.
"After him [Jamphel Gyatso the VIIIth Dalai Lama (1758-1804)], the IXth and Xth Dalai Lamas died before attaining their majority: one of them is credibly stated to have been murdered and strong suspicion attaches to the other. The XIth and XIIth were each enthroned but died soon after being invested with power. For 113 years, therefore, supreme authority in Tibet was in the hands of a Lama Regent, except for about two years when a lay noble held office and for short periods of nominal rule by the XIth and XIIth Dalai Lamas.
It has sometimes been suggested that this state of affairs was brought about by the Ambans—the Imperial Residents in Tibet—because it would be easier to control the Tibet through a Regent than when a Dalai Lama, with his absolute power, was at the head of the government. That is not true. The regular ebb and flow of events followed its set course. The Imperial Residents in Tibet, afer the first flush of zeal in 1750, grew less and less interested and efficient. Tibet was, to them, exile from the urbanity and culture of Peking; and so far from dominating the Regents, the Ambans allowed themselves to be dominated. It was the ambition and greed for power of Tibetans that led to five successive Dalai Lamas being subjected to continuous tutelage."
Thubten Jigme Norbu, the elder brother of the present 14th Dalai Lama, describes these unfortunate events as follows:
"It is perhaps more than a coincidence that between the seventh and the thirteenth holders of that office, only one reached his majority. The eighth, Gyampal Gyatso, died when he was in his thirties, Lungtog Gyatso when he was eleven, Tsultrim Gyatso at eighteen, Khadrup Gyatso when he was eighteen also, and Krinla Gyatso at about the same age. The circumstances are such that it is very likely some, if not all, were poisoned, either by loyal Tibetans for being Chinese-appointed impostors, or by the Chinese for not being properly manageable."
Thubten Gyatso, the 13th Dalai Lama, assumed ruling power from the monasteries which previously had great influence in the Regent, in 1895. Due to his two periods of exile in 1904-1909, to escape the British invasion of 1904, and from 1910-1912 to escape a Chinese invasion, he became well aware of the complexities of international politics and was the first Dalai Lama to become aware of the importance of foreign relations. After his return from exile in India and Sikkim in January, 1913 he took control of foreign relations and dealt directly with the Maharaja and the British Political officer in Sikkim and the king of Nepal rather than letting the Kashag or parliament handle it.
Thubten Gyatso issued a Declaration of Independence from China in the summer of 1912, and standardized the Tibetan flag in its present form. He deported all Chinese residents in the country including the Ambans, and instituted many measures to modernise Tibet.
The Dalai Lamas continued to rule Tibet until the People's Republic of China invaded the region in 1949 and then took full control in 1959. The 14th Dalai Lama then fled to India and has since ceded temporal power to an elected government-in-exile. The current 14th Dalai Lama seeks greater autonomy for Tibet.
His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama is both the head of state and the spiritual leader of Tibet. He was born on 6 July 1935, to a farming family, in a small hamlet located in Taktser, Tibet. At the age of two, the child (named Lhamo Dhondup) was recognized as the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso. The Dalai Lamas are believed to be manifestations of Avalokiteshvara or Chenrezig, the Bodhisattva of Compassion and patron saint of Tibet. Bodhisattvas are enlightened beings who have postponed their own nirvana and chosen to take rebirth in order to serve humanity.
Verhaegen (2002: p.6) frames the trans-polity influence that the Institution of the Dalai Lama has had historically in areas such as western China, Mongolia, Ladakh in addition to the other Himalayan Kingdoms.
The Dalai Lamas have also functioned as the principal spiritual guide to many Himalayan kingdoms bordering Tibet, as well as western China, Mongolia and Ladakh. The literary works of the Dalai Lamas have, over the centuries, inspired more than fifty million people in these regions. Those writings, reflecting the fusion of Buddhist philosophy embodied in Tibetan Buddhism, have become one of the world's great repositories of spiritual thought.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalai_Lama

Or is he just being ignored because of his total idiocy?

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http://darlenehardie.com/picturepages/e024.htm

painting: "Dolly Llama Prays for Peas"

Image Size 3" x 4"
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Frame Style Natural Ash
Inner Mat Color White
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