34 Facts About Losang Thonden

Losang Thonden was a Tibetan government official, scholar, calligrapher, and author.

Losang Thonden was born on 23 May 1942, in Lhasa, Tibet, the son of Pasang Tsering Khangsar and Kungchok Dolma.

From 1946 to 1957, Thonden attended Jarpakhang High School in Lhasa.

Losang Thonden's family hired an officer named Darma Bhabu from the Nepalese embassy in Lhasa to teach Thonden English and Nepali, as well as mathematics.

Losang Thonden graduated high school at the age of 15.

Losang Thonden was then selected among few other students in all of Lhasa by the Tibetan Central Government in conjunction with Beijing government as an elite student ambassador to study at the Beijing University to promote bilateral cultural brotherhood.

Losang Thonden was disappointed by the objections of his mother and decided that he would go on his own.

Wangdue Khangsar family had been the patron of Sera Mey Monastery for many generations, so Losang Thonden was accepted right away.

Later, Losang Thonden attended the non-monastic Sera University to study Tibetan Buddhism, language, and calligraphy under Geshe Lama Tenzin Gyaltsen.

Losang Thonden was separated from his parents and other siblings until they reunited back in India in 1962.

When Losang Thonden arrived in India, he was very keen on improving his English language skills, and, with the help of his cousin sister Kesang Yangkyi Takla, he began learning English and later he studied English under a retired British officer, Major Ken in Kalimpong India.

From 1960 to 1963, Losang Thonden served the Council for Tibetan Education and became a prominent member scholar in the Tibetan Literary Committee.

Losang Thonden was later selected for the Central Tibetan Administrative for Higher Studies, a joint collaboration with Delhi University.

In 1966, the Council for Tibetan Education asked Losang Thonden to move to Kalakshetra Institute in South India to help with the Tibetan education and planning of curriculum for Tibetan children.

In 1968, at the age of 27, Losang Thonden became one of the youngest Tibetan government officials to be appointed as the Deputy Secretary of Department of Education.

When his predecessor Barshi Tsedrung Ngawang Tenkyong, who took ill explained newly appointed Secretary Mr Losang Thonden regarding the challenges faced by the Tibetan schools.

Losang Thonden overhauled and laid the new groundworks for the administrative system of managing a total of 60 Tibetan schools in India, Nepal, Sikkim, and Bhutan that were poorly underrepresented for getting financial grants from the government of India and international sources.

Losang Thonden worked tirelessly to secure funding, sponsorship, and educational scholarship for Tibetan schools so the children attending them would be able to attend major colleges and universities in India and abroad.

Losang Thonden managed to secure many international scholarship programs for the Tibetan refugee students and thus many Tibetan students were sent to technical schools and universities in England, Denmark, France, and Norway.

In 1973, Losang Thonden was one of the key figures in organizing first ever Tibetan Education Conference in Dharamsala, HP India.

When newly established Library of Tibetan Works and Archives in Dharamshala was formed, they had a dire need of a Tibetan language scholar, and in 1974, Losang Thonden was requested to join as the resident Tibetan Language and Cultural Research Scholar by his then brother-in-law Gyatsho Tshering.

Tshering expressed his wishes to the Dalai Lama that Losang Thonden would have far better implementing on academia in promoting and preservation of Tibetan Language and Literature internationally well as towards upcoming younger Tibetan generations and he could fully exercise his Tibetan Language Mastery.

In late 1975, the Dalai Lama accepted Losang Thonden's leave from Tibetan Government Administrations.

Losang Thonden was one of the first Tibetan scholars who worked with international language professors and scholars from around the world in bringing standardized Tibetan phonetics in all major European languages.

Losang Thonden helped Professor Ngawang Dhondup Narkyi, Father of the Tibetan Typewriter, to improve the Tibetan Remington Rand typewriter, later manufactured in Kolkata, India.

Losang Thonden was an instrumental member in standardizing and implementing the early versions of modern computerized Tibetan Language Unicode for Microsoft Word.

Losang Thonden is considered by the Central Tibetan Government one of the few surviving Tibetan language scholars and calligraphers outside of Tibet who is versed in all the Tibetan forms of calligraphy: Uchen, Umi, Druktsa, Horyig, Tsukthun, Yigchun, TsomaQu, and Quk.

Losang Thonden has translated over 80 western articles and journals for subjects including law, health, and medicine for both the Council for Tibetan Education and the Tibetan Department of Home Affairs.

Losang Thonden had been working on his memoir: a perspective as young Tibetan growing up in Tibet and perspective of Tibetans up till 1959, Tibetan songs and poems, and a Calligraphy book with new Calligraphy designs.

In 1992, Losang Thonden immigrated to the United States, where he lived in Seattle, Washington with his wife Dekyi Losang Thonden Gyalkhang.

Losang Thonden was cast in Jean-Jacques Annaud's Seven Years in Tibet and starred as a principal cast in the 20th Century Fox production The Secret Life of Walter Mitty with actor and director Ben Stiller.

Losang Thonden appeared in the documentary film Ten Yaks and Twenty Horns and acted in a few short films directed by his son Rabyoung Thonden Gyalkhang.

On 21 November 2018, Losang Thonden died after a long battle with cancer.

Losang Thonden is survived by his wife Dekyi Thonden Gyalkhang and his two sons Rabgyal Thonden Gyalkhang, and Rabyoung Thonden Gyalkhang.