Gyalo Thondup, the eldest brother of the Dalai Lama and a political operator in Tibet and the larger area, has died, the Dalai Lama’s workplace confirmed in an announcement. He died on Sunday in Kalimpong in West Bengal, India, in response to Tibetan media. He was 97.
“He was man who did his greatest for the Tibetan trigger,” the Dalai Lama stated within the assertion. “I pray that he’ll take rebirth as a Tibetan once more and that he’ll have the ability to serve the Tibetan administration that may be a mixture of spirituality and politics as soon as extra,” he stated, referring to the Buddhist perception within the cycle of rebirth.
A distinguished determine in Tibetan society and politics, Mr. Thondup has been called the second-most influential particular person within the small Himalayan territory, eclipsed solely by his brother, Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama and head of Tibetan Buddhism.
Collectively, the brothers defined a political era in Tibet, the more and more remoted territory nestled within the Himalayas that has lengthy battled Chinese language affect and management. Whereas the Dalai Lama has usually been extra public-facing, courting worldwide consideration and accolades, Mr. Thondup was seen as a reserved, geopolitical operator who was extra comfy away from the highlight.
For many years, Mr. Thondup advocated for paths to permit his brother — exiled since 1959 — to return to the territory. He saved the corporate of worldwide leaders, hoping to leverage varied stakeholders within the service of Tibetan independence.
Considered one of six youngsters born to farmers within the Chinese language city of Takster, Mr. Thondup served as a lifelong adviser and advocate for his youthful brother. Despatched overseas to check, he was the one one in all his siblings not destined for spiritual life.
Free of non secular obligations, Mr. Thondup spent his life working for Tibetan autonomy, generally extra aggressively than others.
Mr. Thondup settled in India in 1952 and was an early mediator when the Dalai Lama fled there after the failed 1959 Tibetan rebellion towards Chinese language rule. Mr. Thondup would later name his brother’s secure passage to India one in all his best achievements.
Mr. Thondup would go on to domesticate a few of the first official Tibetan contacts with Indian and American authorities within the Fifties and Sixties, asking for his or her assist. Within the Fifties, he aided the C.I.A. in an ill-fated try to arm Tibetan separatists towards the Communist Chinese language authorities.
Mr. Thondup periodically met with Chinese language leaders in efforts to ease Chinese language affect over Tibet. At the same time as talks broke down lately, he urged Tibetans to remain engaged.
“It’s important for Tibetan individuals to not lose hope in pleading for our rights to the Chinese language authorities,” Mr. Thondup stated at a information convention in 2008. He revealed an autobiography in 2015, “The Noodlemaker of Kalimpong,” about his lifetime of activism and the Tibetan battle towards Chinese language rule.
The Dalai Lama led a prayer service on Sunday for his brother, his workplace stated.
After the service, because the recitation concluded, the Dalai Lama rose from his seat, saluted a photograph of his late brother and returned to his dwelling house, the assertion from his workplace stated.
Mujib Mashal contributed reporting.
