Any book on Kalimpong which intends to document the past and present of this town would be shorn of its credibility if it does not tell the story of Gyalo Thondup, the elder brother of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama and arguably the most colourful personality in Tibetan politics in the second half of the 20th century.
Kalimpong, a small non-descript town of just a few thousand inhabitants, because it was in the right place at the right time, was catapulted to world fame and riches in the early and mid 1900s, in the process becoming one of the most important and famous town of its size, in British India.
It’s been 20 days since the infamous video that went viral in India and caused unfathomable pain and suffering to the sentiments of thousands of Tibetan in diaspora and to millions inside of Tibet, when the Chinese government for the first time made the video of Dalai lama available on their heavily censored internet search bars for all the wrong reason, with the malicious intent to sow hatred, stir disgust and relegate the stature of His Holiness the Dalai Lama from the psyche of the Tibetan people, who has revered him for centuries and places an indomitable faith and unshakable respect on him.
Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama celebrated his 85th birthday on July 6 and given the border dispute with China; proposals for him to be conferred the Bharat Ratna started pouring in. In the tiny Himalayan state of Sikkim too, the demand is picking up.
Asked if and how many had been refused entry into India, the Home Minister C Rajagopalachari referred to the customary nature of Tibetan travel to India: “They are ordinary trading people and no question of refusal arises.”
Writes: Ugyen Gyalpo – Woodside, New York It was in the summer of 1986 when I was just about twelve years old that I watched…
Other than a select group of people who deal in curios, we can safely bet that no one has ever heard of the term –…