Gyalo Thondup

Gyalo Thondup in 1948 or 1949, standing in front of a large window of the Dalai Lama's family house, Yabshi Taktser, in Lhasa. He is wearing a woollen robe and felt boots. Gyalo Thondup (; ; – 8 February 2025)Efn|1=According to The Washington Post, his exact birth date is unknown. His book jacket lists his birth year as 1929. Other sources say 1928 or 1927.

Early life and education Around 1928, Gyalo Thondup was born in the village of Taktser, Amdo (Ping'an District, Qinghai province). He was the third child of Choekyong Tsering and Diki Tsering.

Political involvement In 1949, before the Communist revolution of that year in China, Thondup left Nanjing for Tibet with his wife, who became known by the Tibetan name Diki Dolkar. in subsequent decades, Thondup traveled between New Delhi, Taipei, Washington, Hong Kong, and Beijing as an unofficial envoy.

Involvement with the Republic of China (ROC) According to his personal memoir, Thondup was personally sponsored by Chiang Kai-shek to be a special student in one of Nanjing's top universities. After first meeting them in May 1946, he visited the Chiangs' home frequently, describing him and his wife Soong Meiling as "unfailingly warm and gracious hosts" who paid for all his expenses and treated him "as a son". Both Gyalo and his wife Zhu Dan (who had spent her time at a local Baptist hospital working with children and refugees traumatized after the Second Sino-Japanese War) left Nanjing in March 1949 as the mainland fell to the Communists.

United States activities In 1951, he traveled to America and became the main source of information on Tibet for the United States Department of State. The Central Intelligence Agency promised to make Tibet independent from China in exchange for Thondup's support in organizing guerrilla units to fight against the People's Liberation Army, an offer that Thondup accepted.

Thondup helped to recruit approximately 300 fighters to be trained at Camp Hale, Colorado, who in turn trained thousands of others in the Tibetan resistance. Thondup maintained that he did not inform the 14th Dalai Lama about the CIA's actions, out of respect for his pacifist stance. To his disappointment, US support ended after the 1972 Nixon visit to China.

In recent years, Thondup urged Tibetans to remain politically engaged, repeatedly stating that dialogue was the only way to achieve progress with China. In 1998, the Central Tibetan Administration in exile criticized Thondup for not letting the Dalai Lama know about the CIA's involvement in Tibet.

Personal life and death Thundap and his wife Diki Dolkar had a daughter, who died in the early 1980s, and two sons. His wife Dolkar died in 1986. In 2002, Thondup visited Lhasa briefly by invitation of the Chinese government.

In retirement, Thondup started a noodle factory in West Bengal, India. In 2015, he published his memoir, The Noodle Maker of Kalimpong: The Untold Story of My Struggle for Tibet, which became a bestseller.

Publications (with Anne F. Thurston), The Noodle Maker of Kalimpong: The Untold Story of the Dalai Lama and the Secret Struggle for Tibet, PublicAffairs, 2015