Sheetalb, you ask a question where the answer could simply be found googling it rather than show how little you know about the Tibetan cause.  What has he done you ask?  Well, for starters, he was a king who lost his land but yet is still going through the Gandhian/ahimsa principle in trying to let the perpetrators rationalize and realize their misdoings.  Would you or I go down quietly without a fight, especially when all is at stake??  I'd give an eye to have even a bit of the humbleness he possesses.  What else has he done?  What about bringing awareness to the whole Tibetan Refugee issue?  From a movement nobody care about until 1989, it has become a star-studded event.  The success he has brought in the awareness cannot be emulated by any other refugee community in the world. 

Since you know so little about this man, keep reading:

And about rolex watches...He collects them because of his interest in fine arts.  Whats more important, ALL the rolex watches he owns have been presented to him.  Not a single one was bought using the state budget or wuth any of the donations made to him.  Another fact to ponder upon, the Dalai Lama has no personal bank account (checking nor savings).  All funds donated to him (tens of millions a year) are put into the Tibetan Govt in Exile's treasury.  BTW, TGIE has totally been funded through donations only: westerners and other nations and by the Tibetans around the world (they do not have the luxury of taxing their citizens). 

More importantly, unlike dictators/kings (and North Korea which you pointed out), he leaves no will and whatever he leaves does not go to ANY of his family.  The state will own it until a new Dalai Lama is chosen.  Even comparing him to the any politician out there is way too ignorant.  Greed and corruption has no room here as he was merely 2 years of age when he was recognized as the 14th Dalai Lama.  Would a 2 year old boy ever think about politics and money??  Also, when boys his age were being boys, he lived a life totally submerged into the religious texts.  I don't know where you get the basis of him being a N Korean dictator or a king as he, himself never asked to rule the country (but was chosen for the role) nor was his father ever a ruler/politician and nor will he ever have the security of having children (on a scarier note, no sex!!)...Damn, Given a choice, I'd definitely not take the job.  Why make it sound glamorous when it totally is not?? 

As for the question, will Tibetans return if Tibet is free...Well, the TGIE under Dalia Lama has been asking for an autonomous govt in Tibet (not a totally "Free" Tibet) for decades.  This request was to help the millions of Tibetans still in Tibet supressed from their true way of life (mainly focusing around inner-peace through religion).  He is NOT asking this for the Tibetans outside at all...A lotta ignorant people still think that half of Tibet left the nation along with the Dalai Lama in 1959.  In conservative estimates by the TGIE,not even 8-10% could do so (mostly the people from the capital went along, the ones in the rural areas had no choice but to remain put).  As the Dalai himself said, Its all a matter of choice.  They left the country on their will to flee with him and if they want to return, it should be upto them.  Listen Sheetalb (and the hundreds who think they know abou the Tibet cause but do not), The ones you mention who won't return are the ones who weren't born or were too little know what transpired during the Dalai Lama's flight from 1959...I've met hundreds from that era who still call Tibet their motherland even 50 years after living in exile!!  Perhaps you just need to go out and see the other half of the population.

BTW, before anyone blasts back at me, I am not a Tibetan (nor were my fore-fathers) but lets say, I have deep sympathy for their cause, hung out and lived with them and more importantly, would support the Dalai Lama in his every decision...For me, He is the rock-star of all cultural icons!!

PS: hey Puntedamai, good to see ya too!!