The Dalai Lama explains how he was "Recognized" as the Dalai Lama as a 3 year old in Amdo, Tibet in 1937

 I was born in a small village called Takser, meaning “the Roaring Tiger” on July 6 1935. Takser is in the north east of Tibet, in Amdo province, which borders on to China. My parents were peasant farmers. On the whole, my parents grew enough to feed the family. In peasant families such as ours, it was important to have many children, and my mother gave birth to 16 children, but nine of them died when they were very young. Of course, at that time nobody imagined that I was anything but an ordinary baby. After I was born, a couple of crows begin frequenting the roof of our house. They would arrive each morning, stay there for a while, and fly off again. This is of interest because a similar event took place after the first of the first, seventh, and eighth Dalai Lama.

How I was recognized as the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama

When I was barely 3 years old, a Team charged by the Lhasa government with a task of finding the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama arrived at the monastery in Kumbum. Various signs sent these men to my parents farm, where they spent the night playing with me and observing me very closely. They returned a few days later with the set of objects that had belonged to the 13th Dalai Lama, and other identical objects that  had not belonged to him. Presented with each of the objects that had belonged to him, I would cry out,” This is mine! This is mine!” That is how I was eventually recognized as the new Dalai Lama.

My mother remembers very clearly that as soon as I arrived in Lhasa, I said that my teeth were in a box, in a room of the Norbulinka  (the Summer Palace). When the box was opened, it was found to contain a set of teeth, which belonged to the 13th Dalai Lama.

Bodhisattva of compassion, Holder of the white lotus

I am considered to be the reincarnation each one of the previous Dalai Lama's —the first was born in 1351—and, in turn, each one is considered to be a manifestation of the Bodhisattva of Compassion, the Holder of the White Lotus. Tibetans therefore believe me to be 14th manifestation in The lineage, which goes back to a Brahman child who lived in the time of Shakyamuni Buddha, some 2500 years ago.

Very few people indeed have  ever been considered in any way divine. Thanks to my role, I am able to bring a lot of benefit, and for this reason I appreciate it. This role is also very useful for people in general, and I owe it to my Karma to have been reborn into it. You can say that my circumstances are extremely fortunate. However, behind the idea of good fortune I Actually live real causes and conditions: there is the karmic force of my capacity to take on the role, and there is my wish to do so.

The Indian monk Shantideva  wrote:

“As long as space endures,
As long as sentient beings remain,
until then, may I remain
to dispel the miseries of the world.”

I make this wish in my present life, and I'm sure I have made it in past lives too.
This has been a quote from the Dalai Lama's Little book of inner peace: the essential life and teachings by his Holiness the Dalai Lama.

This particular quote is from page is 3 to Page 9 within the book