>From Office of Tibet, London

LONDON, January 9, 1996 -- Geshe Thupten Jinpa, the principal English translator to His Holiness the Dalai Lama has become the first Tibetan scholar to become a fellow at University of Cambridge, one of the world's best known educational institutions.

Geshe Jinpa, a PhD candidate at King's College, Cambridge University has been awarded the prestigious "The Margaret Smith Research Fellowship" at Girton College, the University of Cambridge. This fellowship begins from October 1996 and is valid for three years.

There is a long tradition at both Cambridge and Oxford Universities to award research fellowships to scholars with distinguished academic prospects. The fellowships are paid academic positions with terms ranging a year to three years. However, the first and foremost these fellowship are awards representing, on the part of the University, the recognition of the individual candidate's academic excellence. The candidates of these awards are chosen through stringent selection procedures which include both the assessment of written works and interviews.

Geshe Jinpa's topic for his doctorate degree is based on the concept of self and reality in TsongKhapa philosophy.