Dharamshala: The leadership and staff of the Central Tibetan Administration held a prayer service today to mourn the demise of Lobsang Choephel, the former representative of the Tibet Bureau, Geneva, who passed away on 27 April 2025.

After presenting a brief biography of the deceased by Cabinet Secretary Tsegyal Chukya Dranyi, he conveyed his sadness at the painful news. He asked everyone to offer prayers for the departed soul.

Brief Bio: Lobsang Choephel was born in 1944 in Lhasa to Tenzin Wangyal and Tsering Dolma, custodians of the historic Pari Monastery. At the age of eleven, he began his formal education at a local school in Lhasa, where he learned to read and write Tibetan.

Following the occupation of Tibet, he fled into exile via Bhutan to India, accompanied by Kyabje Nenang Pawo Rinpoche. That same year, he began studying English and Hindi with the help of private tutors.

In 1961, the Central Tibetan Administration (then the Gaden Phodrang government) selected him as one of ten young Tibetans for a six-month staff training program in Dharamshala. Two years later, in 1963, under the instruction of the Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, he was appointed as a translator for a Tibetan settlement in Switzerland. Over the next five years, he pursued studies in English Literature, Economics, and History, and later expanded his academic pursuits to include Business studies, in England.

After 1968, granted permission to remain in Switzerland for some time, he developed a close working relationship with Representative Lobsang Samten and Phala Thupten Woeden in Geneva, regularly assisting them with official correspondence and document preparation. Concurrently, he served as the secretary of the Regional Tibetan Youth Congress for three years.

In 1971, he was appointed assistant to Representative Phala Thupten Woeden by the Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and formally joined the office in 1972. The following year, he assumed the role of Swiss Representative, a position he held until October 1976.

Lobsang Choephel passed away on 27 April 2025 at Horgen Hospital in Switzerland. He is survived by his wife and son.