President of the Tibetan Parliament in Exile.

Member of the Preparatory Commission for the charter of the Tibetans in Exile and for the Future Constitution of Tibet.

Rector of the Central Institution of High Tibetan Studies.

SHORT BIOGRAPHY

Professor Samdhong Rinpoche was born in 1939 in Tibet, in Nagdug, a village in the province Kham. He has accomplished all steps of the monastic ordination and has the title of Bhiktchou Mahathero.

He started his monastic studies in Tibet in 1951 at the University of Drepoung and continued them, after the Chinese occupation of Tibet, at the new monastic university of Drepoung, which was re-established in India. In 1970, he obtained his diploma which corresponds to the highest degree of "gueshe", or doctor in Buddhist sciences, in the monastery of Gyuto, which was also re-established in India, in Dalhousie.

Since 1961, Professor Samdhong Rinpoche, eminent erudite, has had important functions in different Tibetan lyceums: Simla, Darjeeling and Dalhousie. In 1971 he was appointed director of the Central Institution of High Studies in Benares in India, where he is rector since 1988.

Since 1994 he has been part of various academic and administrative councils at many Indian Universities.

At the same time he was in charge of these university functions, Professor Samdhong Rinpoche was also, from 1970 to 1973, deputy chairman of the Congress of Tibetan Youth. At the moment he assumed different administrative tasks in request of the Tibetan Government-in-exile and the Indian government:

By appointment of His Holiness the Dalaï Lama, he is:

1. Member of the Council for the Tibetan Schools' Administration (CTSA) in New Delhi.

2. Deputy chairman of the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives (LTWA) in Dharamsala.

By appointment of the Indian government, he is:

3. Member of the executive board of the Indian Council for Philosophical Research (ICPR).

4. Member of the executive board of the Asiatic Society, Calcutta.

In the meantime, Professor Samdhong Rinpoche is:

5. Member of the executive board of the Krishnamurti Foundation in India.

6. Counselor at the World Peace University, USA.

7. Counselor at the Institution for Asian Democracy in New York.

8. Member of the executive board of the Foundation for Universal Responsibility, New Delhi.

Moreover, Professor Samdhong Rinpoche is responsible for the entire publications at the Central Institute for Tibetan High Studies. He has published over sixty studies and interviews in different university publications and in the press.

Languages practiced by Professor Samdhong Rinpoche: Tibetan, English, Hindi, and Sanskrit.

Address: Chairman, Assembly of Tibetan People's Deputies

P.O. DHARAMSALA - 176215 Dist. Kangra, H.P. INDIA