Lobsang Tenzin

Who is Lobsang Tenzin?

Lobsang Tenzin, better known by the titles Professor Venerable Samdhong Rinpoche and to Tibetans as the 5th Samdhong Rinpoche, was the previous Prime Minister, of the Central Tibetan Administration, or Tibetan government-in-exile, which is based in Dharamshala, India; Lobsang Sangay was elected to this position in April 2011.

A close associate of 14th Dalai Lama, the Tibetan leader, he was elected to his current position in 2001.

Lobsang Tenzin was born in Jol, in eastern Tibet. At the age of five, he was recognised, according to Tibetan tradition, as the reincarnation of the 4th Samdhong Rinpoche and enthroned in Gaden Dechenling Monastery at Jol. Two years later he took vows as a monk, started his religious training at Drepung Monastery in Lhasa and completed it at the Madhyamika School of Buddhism. But in 1950, after the Chinese invasion of Tibet, he was forced to go into exile in India along with the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso.

From 1960 onwards Lobsang Tenzin worked as a teacher in Tibetan religious schools in India, first in Simla and later in Darjeeling. Between 1965 and 1970 he was the Principal of Dalhousie Tibetan School and between 1971 and 1988 he was the Principal of Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies at Varanasi, and from 1988 to 2001 he was the Director. He is regarded as one of the leading Tibetan scholars of Buddhism and is also an authority on the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. He is fluent in Hindi and English, Tibetan being his mother tongue.