Tenzin Nyidon
DHARAMSHALA, Feb. 10: Tibetans in exile mourned the passing of Gyalo Thondup, the elder brother of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and a pivotal figure in modern Tibetan history. He passed away on February 8, at the age of 97 at his residence, Taktser House, in Kalimpong, India.
Following the news of his demise, Tibetan leaders and communities worldwide have expressed condolences and organized prayer services to honor his lifelong contributions. The Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), based in Dharamshala, held a memorial service, recognizing his dedication to the Tibetan cause.
CTA President Penpa Tsering personally visited Gyalo Thondup’s residence alongside Security Minister Gyari Dolma and members of the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile to pay their respects. Expressing deep sorrow, he praised Thondup’s role in shaping Tibetan political affairs. “It is with deep sorrow that we, CTA and the Tibetan people, mourn the passing of Gyalo Thondup la, the elder brother of @DalaiLama A towering figure in Tibet’s history, he lived a meaningful life defined by his unparalleled contributions to the Tibetan cause. His legacy will continue to inspire generations to come. May he attain a swift rebirth and continue his virtuous legacy,” President Tsering wrote on social media x (formerly Twitter).
Speaker of the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile, Khenpo Sonam Tenphel, also expressed his grief, stating, “With a heavy heart, we mourn the demise of Gyalo Thondup, esteemed elder brother of @DalaiLama. His lifelong dedication to the Tibetan cause & his remarkable contributions will be remembered with deep gratitude, inspiring our unwavering pursuit of justice & freedom for #Tibet.”
Tibetan Buddhist monasteries across India, including Tsuglagkhang (the Dalai Lama’s main temple in Dharamshala), Sera Jey Monastery, and Tashi Lhunpo Monastery in South India, held prayer ceremonies in his memory. During a service at Tashi Lhunpo on February 9, presided over by the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader made a heartfelt appeal for prayers to fulfill his brother’s wish for rebirth as a Tibetan to continue serving the Dalai Lama.
“My elder brother Gyalo Thondup has passed away. He had worked conscientiously, was amazingly perseverant, and greatly courageous. Today, this prayer service is so that eventually my elder brother Gyalo Thondup has a good rebirth. It has also been his prayer that he be reborn as a Tibetan so that he can continue his service for Tibet’s religion and politics. I, too, am praying. He had the aspiration to be alongside and serve the Dalai Lama for several lifetimes. I would like to request everyone to pray so that such a powerful aspiration can be fulfilled,” the Dalai Lama said at the prayer ceremony.
Born in 1928 in Taktser, eastern Tibet, Gyalo Thondup played a crucial role in the Tibetan resistance movement. Educated in Nanjing, China, he later moved to Kalimpong, India, where he became a key figure in securing international support for Tibet. In the 1950s, he facilitated Tibetan resistance efforts that led to CIA-backed covert operations against Chinese occupation. His diplomatic outreach also helped His Holiness the Dalai Lama escape to India in 1959. He played a role in securing three UN resolutions on Tibet and later detailed his experiences in his memoir, The Noodle Maker of Kalimpong.
In 1979, Thondup initiated direct political talks with Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, laying the groundwork for future negotiations. He also served as the Kalon Tripa (Prime Minister) from 1991 to 1993 and as Kalon (Minister) of the Department of Security in the Tibetan Government-in-Exile.
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The older generation is gradually disappearing while a new generation of Tibetans born outside our Tibet are coming up. While the Tibetans who came from Tibet in the late 1950s and 60s did not have a modern education, they were deeply imbued with their culture, their Buddhist belief system and language. They were highly motivated to struggle for Tibet’s independence (བོད་རང་བཙན་) because they wanted to return to their country. They never expected to live their whole lives in exile! As late as 1973, I discovered that many Tibetans did not intend to built lavish houses or even big houses in the belief that they will return to Tibet soon. People were unhappy when the monks begin building rather large and decorative monasteries because people started to think we are not going to return anytime soon. Every Tibetan who crossed the high Himalayas to flee their country in the aftermath of communist China’s illegal occupation never envisaged a life in exile! Today, you can hear from the elderly Tibetans their sadness for being unable to see their country of birth. Those who were born in Tibet never cut their umbilical cord from their father land. As this generation, now disappears into the horizon, we have an entirely new generation of Tibetans who have never seen Tibet and know very little about Tibet and even less familiar with its culture, Buddhist belief and language! Having no physical connection with their father land, how they are going to carry on the struggle is the biggest worry of the dwindling elderly generation. In order to fight, there must be a fire in the belly! Do they have the dedication, perseverance and the will to fight for the independence of Tibet? This is the biggest unanswered question of our community today. In the passing away of Kasur Gyalo Thondup, it begs the question, will there be another one like him? What Tibetans have to understand is that we lost our country because we never gave any attention in defending the country! Buddhism pacified Tibetans from a warring race to a people who renounced violence. Renouncing violence is fine but it must not verge on putting ourselves at the mercy of others! Tibetans did not even want to talk about politics. Every mundane thing such as war, politics and romance were frowned upon. Sir Charles Bell, who was a good friend of the 13th Dalai Lama asked him to prepare for war as the situation in China was unpredictable. The Japanese expedition to China had severely mauled the Kumintang army and this gave the Chinese communists a superb chance to achieve its goal of usurping power in China. Tibetans didn’t anticipate the dark clouds that was fast enveloping China and the ascension of a vile, brutal, ruthless ideology that was engulfing China with the full military support of a ruthless dictator that was Stalin. No sooner, the Chinese communists came to power, they showed their true colour of imperialist intention to conquer Tibet! The Tibetan Government recruited an army of affluent families (གྲོང་དྲག་དམག་སྒར་) However, the Kumintang and its proxies did everything to destroy it. Tsaring Dasang Dadul was made the Chief Military Officer of this force and began training but a spurious rumour was spread by the Kumintang which alleged that Dasang Dadul was going to use the army to overthrow the Dalai Lama! He fell foul of the Tibetan Government and was humiliated and finally dismissed! As long as Tibetans don’t have a leverage, the Chinese game is to normalise the military occupation of Tibet and as for the exiles wait for the Dalai Lama’s demise and the “Dalai Clique” will finally end up in the dust bin of history, so they think! This is their strategy. Once, the towering image of the Dalai Lama disappears from the horizon, it will be curtains down for the exiles, so reasons the CCP. We have to admit that there is no denying the fact that it’s very much the Dalai Lama who was instrumental in Tibet enjoying a high profile on the world stage! If he is no more, there is no one who can raise the voice for Tibet like him! With the kind of internecine factional feuds amongst us with their different affiliations and loyalties, there is danger of delegitimising the elected leader for their own political convenience. If that occurs, the legitimacy of the CTA comes into question and trust deficit in the leadership will grow! This will have a disastrous outcome of losing the very legitimacy of the struggle. Therefore, in order to sustain the movement and give sustenance for the youth who have not seen their father country, we should be considering military training for our young people to mould their minds for an independent Tibet that is illegally occupied by an alien power and also retain comradeship, national identity and the existence of TIBET as the NATION OF THE TIBETAN PEOPLE ORDAINED BY THE LORD BUDDHA HIMSELF!!! བོད་ཁ་བ་ཅན་ནི་འཕགས་མཆོག་སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས་ཀྱི་ཞིང་ཁམས་སུ་རྒྱལ་བ་རང་ཉིད་ཀྱི་ལུང་བསྟན་ཅིང་་ འཕགས་མཆོག་སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས་ནི་བོད་མི་རིགས་ཀྱི་ལྷ་སྐལ་ཡིན་ནོ་) It is necessary to inculcate the indomitable spirit of our forefathers who have died and spilled rivers of blood for the independence and freedom of the Tibetan people. We can take courage from other liberation movements such as Palestinians where they are facing the same ethnic cleaning and genocide we are facing under Chinese communist occupation. Just as the Israelis are merciless in killing and destroying the people, religion, displacement and habitat of the Palestinian people, communist China has done and continues to do so to the Tibetan people to this day! The whole world sympathises with the Palestinian people despite their armed resistance. Tibetans might perhaps enjoy even more sympathy since we have been bending our knees to the Chinese communists for the last seven decades! Despite the Chinese communist’s brutality and atrocities we have not flinched and continue to fight but begging for others good will has limits and good will is not in abundance when the world is in turmoil. We have to prepare for any eventuality so that TIBET WILL NOT PERISH! The Chinese communists are unlikely to give up on Taiwan and the US cannot afford to allow Taiwan to be swallowed by the CCP. As it were, a war between the two is inevitable in some point in time. That might even end up as a nuclear war! In the aftermath, the CCP will either fall or at least it will be gravely weakened because America is more powerful than China with its fire power, technology and allies. When a totalitarian state loses its grip on the territories it holds by force, they will all try to escape the oppression as it happened to the USSR and Yugoslavia! Most of territories held by communist China are held against their will such as Tibet, East Turkistan, Mongolia and Hong Kong. All of them will disperse once the centrifugal force collapses. If we have prepared mentally and militarily over the coming years, when such a scenario offers itself, we would be ready to regain our independence by fighting our way under a dying regime!