Tendol Gyalzur

Gyalzur was born as Tenzin Dolkar in Shigatse, Tibet. She lost her parents in the Chinese annexation of Tibet and as a child crossed the Himalayas on foot and on horseback to flee to India. She grew up in an Indian orphanage, and was chosen to be one of a dozen children sent to Germany by the Tibetan government in exile in 1963. In Germany, she obtained a nursing degree, married another Tibetan refugee, Losang Gyalzur, and moved with him to Switzerland.[1]

When revisiting Tibet as an adult, the sight of numerous street children motivated her to found Tibet's first private orphanage in Lhasa in 1993, in cooperation with a Chinese nonprofit organization and Chinese officials. She later founded another orphanage in Shangri-La and supported a school for nomadic herders' children in Sichuan. In 2016, Chinese restrictions on the work of foreign organizations forced her to yield control over her establishments to the Chinese government.[1] They closed in 2017 and 2018.[2]

One of her sons, Songtsen Gyalzur, became a professional ice hockey player, and established a brewery in Shangri-La, Shangri-La Beer.[2] Gyalzur died on 3 May 2020 in Chur, Switzerland, of COVID-19.[1]

• Polli, Tanja. Ein Leben für die Kinder Tibets Die unglaubliche Geschichte der Tendol Gyalzur. Wörterseh Verlag. Lachen SZ. ISBN 978-3-03763-109-6. OCLC 1105102410.