page_title: Tsepon W. D. Shakabpa
section_title: Biography
hierarchical_section_title: Tsepon W. D. Shakabpa / Biography
caption_attribution_description: English: Tsepon Shakabpa met with the last British Viceroy of India, Lord Louis Mountbatten, in 1948. Kuladharma Ratna translated, while Pomdawa Lozang Yarpel, member of the Trade Mission, stood in the background.
context_page_description: Tsepon Wangchuk Deden Shakabpa was a Tibetan nobelman, scholar, statesman and former Finance Minister of the government of Tibet.
context_section_description: Tsepon Shakabpa was born in Lhasa Tibet. His father, Laja Tashi Phuntsok Shakabpa was a senior lay official in charge of the government treasury, and the steward of Lhasa. His father's brother was Trimon Norbu Wangyal, who became the most powerful minister in the cabinet of the 13th Dalai Lama. His mother was Samdup Dolma, from the Ngodrupding family. The third Reting Rinpoche Ngawang Yeshe Tsultrim Gyaltsen was born in the Ngodrupding family, and twice ruled as Regent of Tibet, from 1845 to 1862. His mother's older brother was Lonchen Changkyim, Prime Minister during the reign of the 13th Dalai Lama. The younger brother of his mother, was Ngoshi Jampa Thuwang, personal physician of the 13th Dalai Lama. Both his maternal uncles accompanied the Great 13th into exile to India in 1910. Shakabpa joined the Government at the age of 23 in 1930, as an official of the Treasury. 
  He was appointed Minister of Finance in 1939, a position he held until 1950. His paternal uncle Trimon, who had participated in the tripartite negotiations between Great Britain, China and Tibet in 1914, strongly encouraged him to take up an interest in Tibetan history. Trimon in 1931, handed him many documents he had personally collected from the Simla Accord negotiations, in order to counter the Chinese narrative accounts concerning his country.
  Between late 1947 and early 1949, Shakabpa, in his capacity as Tibet's Finance Minister, was dispatched abroad by the Tibetan Cabinet, or Kashag, as head of a Tibetan Trade Mission. This Tibet Trade Delegation traveled around to world to investigate the possibilities of commercial treaties, particularly with the United States. He traveled to India, China, USA, England, France, Switzerland and Italy. The mission was intended also to strengthen claims for Tibet as an independent, sovereign nation. The Tibetan Government in Exile argues that the official passport he was issued with at the time illustrates that  Tibet was an independent country.
  As Chinese forces spilled over into Amdo and Kham, Shakabpa and Tsechak Khenchung Thupten Gyalpo were appointed to serve as chief negotiators with the Chinese. The mission was aborted when the Tibetan cabinet minister in eastern Tibet, Ngapo Ngawang Jigme, apparently arranged an agreement with the Chinese. When the PRC entered Tibet in 1951, Shakabpa went into exile, moving to India. There he rallied international support for Tibetan independence, than remain in Tibet and be forced to collaborate with the communists. He was the chief diplomatic representative of the 14th Dalai Lama to the Indian government in New Delhi from 1959 to 1966. It was from this time on that Shakabpa began to concentrate on a rigorous and extensive study of Tibetan history.
  As events in Tibet deteriorated in the mid-fifties, he began to organize the Tibetan resistance together with the Dalai Lama's two older brothers, Gyalo Thondup and the Taktser Rinpoche also known as Thubten Jigme Norbu. After China's violent suppression of Tibetan demonstrations, and the flight of the Dalai Lama and 80,000 Tibetans into exile, Shakabpa played a key role in developing the exile infrastructure. These responsibilities included establishing of settlements for assisting the new diaspora in India, providing sustenance for the refugees, and organizing schools. And also the immigration of many young Tibetans across Western Europe in the early sixties. In this capacity as the Dalai Lama's chief representative, he was centrally responsible for developing the infrastructure to take care of the Tibetan exiles in India. He also played the role of a sort of Tibetan ambassador-at-large for the Dalai Lama in New Delhi. In May 1985, the Kashag (Tibetan Cabinet) of the government-in-exile honored him at a special ceremony, and presented him with a commendation that said in part, "in appreciation of his distinguished service for the independence of Tibet, we would like to honor him as a great exponent of the political history of Tibet". His major work, Tibet: A Political history, published by Yale University Press in 1967, has be
caption: 1948 meeting of Shakabpa and the last British Viceroy of India, Lord Louis Mountbatten
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