Tenzin Geyche Tethong

Tenzin Geyche Tethong (; born May 22, 1943) is one of the four founders and first president of the Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC). He served as the secretary of the 14th Dalai Lama's private office until retiring in 2007 .

Biography He was born in Tibet near Lhasa, into a noble family, many of whose members were officials in the Tibetan government, like his grandfather, Gyurme Gyatso Tethong, who was a minister. With his father, mother and three brothers, he went into exile in India, in Kalimpong, at the beginning of the Chinese invasion in the early 1950s.

He received his primary and secondary education in Christian schools, first in Kalimpong, then at a convent, and finally at St. Augustine's School until 1955. He met Diki Tsering, the mother of Ngari Rinpoche and the Dalai Lama, with whom he got along very well.

Driven by this momentum, along with three other Tibetans in exile, the founders of Sheja, he co-founded the Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC) in 1970, becoming its founding president. Nearly 30 years later, the TYC plays a major role in Tibetan politics in exile, mobilizing youth and advocating for Tibetan independence as an opposition political party vis-à-vis the Central Tibetan Administration, according to Tsewang Phuntsok, president of the TYC from 1991 to 1995. while retaining his position as secretary.

Publications His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama: An Illustrated Biography (with Tendzin Choegyal, Gautam Pemmaraju, and Jane Moore, 2021)