Palden Thondup Namgyal

Who was Palden Thondup Namgyal?

Palden Thondup Namgyal was the 12th and last Chogyal of Sikkim.

At six, Namgyal became a student at St. Joseph's Convent in Kalimpong, but had to terminate his studies due to attacks of malaria. From age eight to eleven he studied under his uncle, Rimpoche Lhatsun, in order to be ordained a Buddhist monk; he was subsequently recognised as the reincarnated leader of both Phodong and Rumtek monasteries. He later continued his studies at Saint Joseph's College in Darjeeling and finally graduated from Bishop Cotton School in Shimla, in 1941.

Namgyal served as adviser for internal affairs for his father, Sir Tashi Namgyal, the 11th Chogyal, and led the negotiating team which established Sikkim's relationship to India after independence in 1949. He married Sangey Deki in 1950, a daughter of an important Tibetan family, and together they had two sons and a daughter. Sangey Deki died in 1957.

In 1963, Namgyal married Hope Cooke, a twenty-two-year-old socialite from New York City; she was a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College in Yonkers on the state of New York. The marriage brought worldwide media attention to Sikkim. The couple, who had two children, divorced in 1980.