DHARAMSHALA: Mr Namgyal Wangdu, former member of Tibetan Parliament and former settlement officer of Dehradun, passed away in the early hours of Saturday, 11 March 2017.
Mr Namgyal Wangdu was born in the year 1935 at Gyantse in central Tibet. He was educated in Tibet and was trained at the Tibetan military base in Gyantse in 1946.
He was involved in the Tibetan resistance against Chinese onslaught from the east in 1949 and was one of the Tibetan fighters guarding the Potala at Lhasa during the 1959 Chinese military suppression.
He came into exile through Gangtok following the brutal military suppression of Tibet in 1959 and was sent to the US for guerilla warfare training. In 1964, he was appointed as one the first trainers of the Tibetan regiment based in Dehradun, serving for more than 14 years.
In 1976, he penned a book on the resistance and military history of Tibet, which was published by the Central Tibetan Administration.
In 1978, he was appointed as the settlement officer of Dehradun, manager of the Rajpur handicraft center and Dekyiling development committee.
Namgyal Wangdu was a distinguished figure who served for over ten years in the erstwhile Tibetan army, 29 years in various positions of the Tibetan administration and as member of the Tibetan parliament for three terms.