Gyalo Thondup, political operator and brother of the Dalai Lama, dies at 97
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Together, the brothers defined a political era in Tibet, which has long battled Chinese influence and control. While the Dalai Lama has often been more public-facing, courting worldwide attention and accolades, Mr. Thondup was seen as a reserved, geopolitical operative who was more comfortable away from the spotlight.
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For decades, Mr. Thondup sought paths to allow his brother to return to the territory from exile. He kept the company of international leaders, hoping to leverage various stakeholders in the service of Tibetan independence.
One of 16 children born to farmers in the Chinese town of Takster, seven of whom survived, Mr. Thondup served as a lifelong adviser and advocate for his younger brother. Sent abroad to study, he was the only one of his siblings not destined for religious life.
Freed from spiritual obligations, Mr. Thondup spent his life working for Tibetan autonomy, sometimes more 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 uprising against Chinese rule. Mr. Thondup would later call his brother's safe passage to India one of his greatest achievements.
Mr. Thondup would go on to cultivate some of the first official Tibetan contacts with Indian and American authorities in the 1950s and 1960s, asking for their support. In the 1950s, he aided the CIA in an ill-fated attempt to arm Tibetan separatists against the Communist Chinese government.
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Mr. Thondup periodically met with Chinese leaders in efforts to ease Chinese influence over Tibet. Even as talks broke down in recent years, he urged Tibetans to stay engaged.
'It's essential for Tibetan people not to lose hope in pleading for our rights to the Chinese government,' Mr. Thondup said at a news conference in 2008. He published an autobiography in 2015, 'The Noodlemaker of Kalimpong,' about his life of activism and the Tibetan struggle against Chinese rule.
The Dalai Lama led a prayer service on Sunday for his brother, his office said.
After the service, as the recitation concluded, the Dalai Lama rose from his seat, saluted a photo of his late brother and returned to his living space, the statement from his office said.
This article originally appeared in
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