KALIMPONG: Gyalo Thondup, the Dalai Lama‘s elder brother who was a towering figure in Tibetan politics and fled China before his sibling did, died Saturday aged 97 at his home in north Bengal’s Kalimpong. “He (Thondup) passed away peacefully due to old age,” said a family member, reports Nisha Chettri.
Another family source stressed that Thondup, who later became a businessman with a thriving noodles business in Kalimpong, had dedicated his life to the Tibetan cause. “He mostly spoke on behalf of his brother, the 14th Dalai Lama, and met world leaders to fight for Tibet’s freedom,” said the source. Thondup had sneaked out of Tibet in 1952. The Dalai Lama, who is now 89, fled in 1959.
Thondup’s sister and brother-in-law have come from Himachal Pradesh’s Dharamshala, the seat of the Tibetan govt-in-exile. Senior officials from there are expected to arrive Monday. Thondup’s funeral will be held Tuesday in Kalimpong.
Thondup was born in 1928 in China’s Taktser. In 1939, he moved to Tibet’s Lhasa with his family. At 14, he went to study Chinese history in China’s Nanjing, where he met influential leaders, including Chiang Kai-shek. In 1948, he married Zhu Dan, the daughter of a Kuomintang general. As tensions in China escalated, he left Nanjing in 1949.
Thondup had shared his experiences of life in exile with this reporter when his noodle factory was gutted in a fire in 2019. He said after fleeing Tibet in 1952, he arrived in Darjeeling but struggled to find work. At that point, an official in Sikkim suggested he start a business, but he had no experience. The Indian govt gave him an import licence and his friends in Kalimpong helped him.
He later started the noodle factory. “My wife and I discussed it, so I looked for land in Kalimpong. The prices were high but I was lucky to buy a plot for Rs 7,200,” Thondup had said then. By 1966-67, he had set up his residence, named “Tagtser House”, in Kalimpong and his noodle business that supported his family for over five decades. Thondup later detailed his life experiences in his memoir, The Noodle Maker of Kalimpong.
