NEW DELHI (AP) — The elder brother of the Dalai Lama and previous chairman of the Tibetan government-in-exile in India, Gyalo Thondup, who led a number of rounds of talks with China and labored with overseas governments for the Tibetan reason, has died. He was once 97.
Thondup died at his house in Kalimpong, a hill the city within the Himalayan foothills of jap West Bengal state, on Saturday night, media stories mentioned. No different main points had been instantly launched about his loss of life.
Tibetan media retailers credited Thondup for networking with overseas governments and praised his position in facilitating U.S. give a boost to for the Tibetan fight.
The Dalai Lama led a prayer consultation for Thondup at a monastery in Bylakuppe the city in India’s southern state of Karnataka on Sunday the place the non secular chief is these days staying for the iciness months.
He prayed for Thondup’s “swift rebirth,” based on Buddhist traditions, and mentioned “his efforts in opposition to the Tibetan fight had been immense and we’re thankful for his contribution.”
Thondup, certainly one of six siblings of the Tibetan non secular chief and the one brother no longer groomed for a spiritual existence, made India his house in 1952 and helped broaden early contacts with the Indian and U.S. governments to hunt give a boost to for Tibet. In 1957, Thondup helped recruit Tibetan combatants who had been despatched to U.S. coaching camps in next years, a file by way of the U.S.-funded Radio Loose Asia mentioned.
Consistent with RFA, Thondup was once basically liable for liaising with the Indian authorities, together with with Top Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, when the Dalai Lama escaped to India in 1959. He additionally performed a key position in setting up Tibetan leaders’ family members with U.S. officers.
Thondup started discussions between Tibetans and Chinese language leaders in 1979, in a departure from his previous method, which sought an armed fight towards Chinese language keep watch over of Tibet. The assembly laid a foundation for a chain of formal negotiations between the Dalai Lama’s respectable envoys and the Chinese language management that persisted till they had been halted in 2010.
In an interview with RFA broadcast in 2003, Thondup mentioned neither India nor the U.S. would be capable to resolve the Tibetan factor, and that development may just handiest come via face-to-face talks with Beijing.
Thondup served as chairman of the Tibetan government-in-exile primarily based in India’s northern hillside the city of Dharamshala from 1991 to 1993.