Tendol Gyalzur
Tendol Gyalzur (c. 1951[note 1]–3 May 2020) was a Tibetan-Swiss humanitarian, known for founding the first private orphanage in Tibet.
Biography[edit]
Gyalzur was born as Tenzin Dolkar in Shigatse, Tibet. She lost her parents in the Chinese annexation of Tibet and as a child crossed the Himalayas on foot and on horseback to flee to India. She grew up in an Indian orphanage, and was chosen to be one of a dozen children sent to Germany by the Tibetan government in exile in 1963. In Germany, she obtained a nursing degree, married another Tibetan refugee, Losang Gyalzur, and moved with him to Switzerland.[1]
When revisiting Tibet as an adult, the sight of numerous street children motivated her to found Tibet's first private orphanage in Lhasa in 1993, in cooperation with a Chinese nonprofit organization and Chinese officials. She later founded another orphanage in Shangri-La and supported a school for nomadic herders' children in Sichuan. In 2016, Chinese restrictions on the work of foreign organizations forced her to yield control over her establishments to the Chinese government.[1] They closed in 2017 and 2018.[2]
One of her sons, Songtsen Gyalzur, became a professional ice hockey player, and established a brewery in Shangri-La, Shangri-La Beer.[2] Gyalzur died from COVID-19 on 3 May 2020, in Chur, Switzerland, during the COVID-19 pandemic in Switzerland.[1]
Works about Tendol Gyalzur[edit]
- Polli, Tanja (2019). Ein Leben für die Kinder Tibets Die unglaubliche Geschichte der Tendol Gyalzur. Wörterseh Verlag. Lachen SZ. ISBN 978-3-03763-109-6. OCLC 1105102410.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Notes[edit]
- ^ On 2 December 1951, according to her Swiss passport, but this birthdate was estimated later.
References[edit]
- ^ a b c Kurczy, Stephen (2020-05-15). "Tendol Gyalzur, Refugee Who Founded Orphanages in Tibet, Dies". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-05-16.
- ^ a b "Tibet's 'Orphan Super-Mother' Lost to COVID-19". The Diplomat. Retrieved 2020-05-16.