Thubten Samphel

Born in Lhasa in 1956, Samphel was the son of parents who worked as servants to the mother of the 14th Dalai Lama, Diki Tsering.^[2]

Three years after the 1959 Tibetan uprising, Samphel left Tibet with his older brother. They arrived in Tingri before crossing the Chinese-Nepalese border into the Solukhumbu District.

Tsering Dolma, older sister of the 14th Dalai Lama, sent Samphel to school at the Tibetan Children's Villages before he joined Dr. Graham's Homes, a missionary school in Kalimpong. After his secondary studies, he attended St. Stephen's College, Delhi and Delhi University, where he earned a bachelor's and a master's degree in history.^[3] While studying for his master's, he was employed in the office of Tenzin Geyche Tethong, a secretary in the private office of the Dalai Lama.^[2]

In 1980, Samphel became an official within the Tibetan government-in-exile. He was among the first group of Tibetan Fulbright Scholars to study in the United States, where he earned a degree in journalism from Columbia University.^[2] In 1985, he was sent to Amdo by the Dalai Lama as part of the Fact-finding missions to Tibet [fr].^[4] From 1999 to 2012, he was secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a spokesperson of the Central Tibetan Administration.^[2] In 2012, he became director of the Tibet Policy Institute.^[5][6] In November 2018, he retired from the Central Tibetan Administration.^[2]

Samphel wrote articles for numerous Tibetan, Indian, and foreign newspapers.^[2] He authored the novel Falling through the roof.^[2]

Thubten Samphel died in Bylakuppe on 4 June 2022.^[7]

• Les dalaï-lamas du Tibet (2001)
• Falling through the Roof (2008)
• Tibet : from Tranquillity to Turmoil (2008)
• Tibet: Reports from Exile (2019)
• Copper Mountain (2022)