Tsoltim Ngima Shakabpa

Tsoltim Ngima Shakabpa (born 7 September 1943 in Lhasa) is a Tibetan banker, activist, writer and poet, one of the first to write in English,[1] composing poems in this language in 1967.[2] Son of the Tibetan Finance Minister Tsepon W. D. Shakabpa, he left Tibet in 1950 to study at the extremely prestigious St. Joseph's School, Darjeeling in India before working for the Tibetan government in exile and settle in the United States and was naturalized American.

Tsoltim Ngima Shakabpa
Born (1943-09-07) 7 September 1943
Lhasa, Tibet
Alma materSt. Joseph's School, Darjeeling
GenrePoetry, non-fiction

Biography

Tsoltim Ngima Shakabpa is the youngest son of the Minister of Finance of the Tibetan Government in 1939-1950 Tsepon W. D. Shakabpa.[1] He was educated in Tibet which he left in 1950, then in India at St. Joseph's College in Darjeeling[3] and the United States.

He works for the Tibetan government in exile in India as CEO of the Tibetan Industrial Rehabilitation Society founded in October 1965 by the Government of India, the Tibetan exile government and foreign aid agencies,[4][5] and rehabilitates 7000 Tibetan refugees in agribusiness camps in Himachal Pradesh.[2]

He moved to Cranford, New Jersey, in the United States where he is a naturalized US citizen and lives with his American wife. There he became an international banker for the Republic National Bank of New York where he was assistant vice president[6] based in Hong Kong before being appointed Senior Vice President in 1985,[7] and then President at Corpus Christi, Texas[8] until he was diagnosed with a stomach cancer in 1993.[9] He struggles and regain health through meditation and Western medicine. According to his doctors, any trace of cancer was gone.[10] However, he was struck again by a stroke in 1999.

Despite these setbacks, he became president of the Tibetan Association of Washington and founded the festival TibetFest in Seattle in the state of Washington.[2]

He continues to write poetry and in 2002 published his first book in Catalan, Records d'un Tibetà[11] at Pagès Editors (University of Lleida), a Spanish publishing house, then in English in 2003.[1] In April 2002, he received the chief editor award for his achievements in poetry from the International Library of Poetry. While adopting a healthy attitude towards life, he continues to fight for the independence of Tibet,[9] questioning the Tibetan autonomy requested by the Tibetan government in exile in China, which can not offer freedom as great as that enjoyed by the Tibetan refugees in the world today.[12]

In 2007, he gets a prize of Saint Joseph's College in Darjeeling.[2]

In 2011, he is among the Tibetan poets who participate to 100 Thousand Poets for Change.[13]

He has a son, Wangchuk D. Shakabpa, and a daughter, Pema Yudon Shakabpa, and lives with his wife in California.[2]

Publications
  • Recollections of a Tibetan, avant-propos du Dalaï Lama, PublishAmerica, 2003, ISBN 1592865984
  • Winds of Change: An Autobiography of a Tibetan, Paljor Publications, 2005
  • Odds and Ends, 2006
  • Voice of Tibet, préface Robert Barnett, Paljor Publications, 2006, ISBN 81-86230-57-2
  • Dead People Talking, Paljor Publications, 2008
  • I Imagine, 2009
  • Being Tibetan 2010
  • Voices of the Voiceless, 2011

References
  1. Voice of Tibet - a foreword by Robert Barnett Archived 2016-08-29 at the Wayback Machine, Phayul.com, 5 juillet 2007
  2. "Dead People Talking (Collection of Poems)". www.namsebangdzo.com.
  3. Molly Chatalic, Quand les morts parlent ... en anglais : révolte et survie dans la poésie de T.N. Shakabpa Archived 2017-10-11 at the Wayback Machine, Les Cahiers du CEIMA, Numéro 8, décembre 2012, p. 121.
  4. Hubertus von Welck, Exile as Challenge: The Tibetan Diaspora, p. 139
  5. Stephanie Römer, The Tibetan Government-in-Exile: Politics at Large, p. 139
  6. Asia, Volumes 1 à 3, 1978, p. 40 : "The son, Tsoltim N. Shakabpa, is an assistant vice president of the Republic National Bank of New York. His memories of Tibet are faint, because when he left there in 1950, he was only 7 years old. Now a United States citizen, he lives with his American wife in Cranford, New Jersey, where their son and daughter attend public school. The young Mr. Shakabpa has become so firmly established here that he says he doubts that he would return to Tibet for more than a visit even if he could."
  7. Asian Finance, Volume 11, Asian Finance Publications, 1985, p. 81 : "TSOLTIM N. SHAKABPA has been named senior vice president of Republic National Bank of New York. Based in the bank's regional headquarters in Hong Kong, Sha- kabpa is responsible for business development in the Asia Pacific region. He had been promoted from vice president to first vice president at the end of 1984."
  8. Tsoltim Ngima Shakabpa, 100thousandpoetsforchange.com
  9. Recollections of a Tibetan, PublishAmerica, 2003
  10. Tsoltim N. Shakabpa Archived 2016-10-10 at the Wayback Machine, Chronicles of Cancera
  11. His bio Archived 2016-08-24 at the Wayback Machine, webzine Big Bridge
  12. Claude Arpi, Tibet, le pays sacrifié, p. 432
  13. Teresa Dowell, They Don't Care... Do You? Archived 2016-09-20 at the Wayback Machine, 100 Thousand Poets for Change, 24 septembre 2011
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