Sampo Tsewang Rigzin

Sampho Tsewang Rigzin (1904–1973) was a Tibetan politician and soldier. After the annexation of Tibet by the People's Republic of China in 1951, he joined the Chinese Communist Party and the People's Liberation Army, attaining the rank of major general (shaojiang) in the latter. He served as a Kalön of the Tibetan Kashag from 1957 to 1959. He was later purged by Chinese officials during the Cultural Revolution and publicly humiliated in a struggle session.

Biography

Sampho Tsewang Rigzin was born in 1905 to the Sampho noble family of the Tibetan aristocracy and inherited the title of Taiji. A native of Lhasa, he received homeschooling and local private school education before being sent to India to study artillery technology. In 1952 he became a member of the board of directors for Lhasa Primary School, his first position as a member of the Communist Party. In 1956 he served in the standing committee of the Tibet Autonomous Region and in the following year he was appointed as a Kalön of the Kashag, the highest office in the province. When the Kashag was abolished in 1959, he became Vice-Chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Region government.

During the Cultural Revolution, he was accused of "organizing an armed rebellion, maintaining illicit relations with foreign countries, and being against the [Communist] Party and against the proletarian dictatorship."