But the Dalai Lama was the one who ran away from Tibet and then told the Tibetans not to resist the Chinese.
Not true. He was removed from Tibet by the Khampas against his will and after his exile secretly helped his brother find funding for the Khampa resistance that went on for a decade or more afterward.
The only thing I can think of is how futile resistance would have been, especially in the cultural perspective of the Tibetans and Chinese. Definitely a wrong call by the Dalai Lama but expected.
The Dalai Lama was hustled out of the country. He may have approved of the move but it wasn’t his decision. It was his votaries who did not want him to fall into the hands of the Chinese.