Lobsang
Sangay (born 1968 at Darjeeling) is a Tibetan refugee, legal scholar and
political activist. He was elected as the next Kalon Tripa (equivalent to Prime
Minister) of the Tibetan Government in Exile on 26 April 2011, succeeding the
5th Samdhong Rinpoche.
Education and academic career
After
graduating from the Tibetan Refugee school in Darjeeling, Sangay received his
B.A. (Hons) and LL.B. degrees from the University of Delhi in India. In 1995,
he won a Fulbright Scholarship to Harvard Law School, where he subsequently
received his LL.M. degree the same year.
In
2003, Sangay organized five conferences between Chinese and Tibetan scholars,
including a meeting between the Dalai Lama and thirty-five Chinese scholars at
Harvard University.
In
2004, he became the first Tibetan (among six million) to earn a S.J.D. degree
from Harvard Law School and was a recipient of the 2004 Yong K. Kim' 95 Prize
of excellence for his dissertation Democracy in Distress: Is Exile Polity a
Remedy? A Case Study of Tibet's Government-in-exile. In 2006, Sangay was
selected as one of the twenty-four Young Leaders of Asia by the Asia Society, a
global organization working to strengthen relationships and promote
understanding among the people, leaders, and institutions of Asia and the
United States. Sangay is currently a Senior Fellow at the East Asian Legal
Studies Program at Harvard Law School. He is an expert in Tibetan law and
international human rights law.
Governmental career
On
April 27, 2011 he was elected Kalon Tripa of the Tibetan Government in Exile.
Sangay won 55% of the votes, defeating Tenzin Tethong (37.4%) and Tashi Wangdi
(6.4%). 83,400 Tibetan were eligible to vote and 49,000 ballots were cast. He
will succeed Lobsang Tenzin as the head of the Tibetan Government in Exile. On
August 8, 2011 Lobsang Sangay officially took oath and accepted his post as the
Kalon Tripa.
While
the leadership of the government-in-exile is in a state of transition, the 14th
Dalai Lama remains formally ceremonial Head of State and has taken no political
stances since his announced retirement in early 2011 from active participation
in Tibetan affairs.
Personal life
Sangay
was born in a village in Darjeeling in 1968, with a typical Shichak
(settlement) background amidst fields, cows, chicken, fetching wood in the
forest and helping his parent's small business including winter sweater
selling. March 10 is used as his birthday as shown on his facebook page, but he
doesn’t know the exact day on which he was born nor did a lot of Tibetan
children born in those years in the refugee camp. Upon registration in school
where a birthday was needed, his parents entered March 10, as did the parents
of almost a third of his classmates. To Tibetans, March 10 is known as the
National Uprising Day (1959 Tibetan uprising), marking the 1959 armed rebellion
against the Chinese rule over Tibet. Presently, he lives in Greater Boston area
in the US. His mother Kelsang Choden from Chamdo lives with him and his father
died in 2004. He is married to Kesang Yangdon Shakchang, whose parents were
from the Lhokha and Phare area. They have been together for 13 years and have a
three-year-old daughter.
From : www.wikipedia.org
