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Gyalo Thondup རྒྱལ་ལོ་དོན་འགྲུབ has had a very interesting life. Born in 1927, he’s the second-eldest brother of the current (and 14th) Dalai Lama. Brother Thondup has long been an unofficial envoy for the Tibetan leader-in-exile, and in May 1950, Gyalo Thondup became the first “officially acknowledged” Tibetan to visit Taiwan since 1949. What was he doing here? Why Taiwan? What were then-president CKS's feelings about Tibet? Find out in this week’s Formosa Files episode.
Cover left: Gyalo Thondup in 1948 or 1949, standing in front of a large window of the Dalai Lama's family house, in Lhasa. Right: The 14th Dalai Lama in 1959. Pics via Wikimedia Commons.
In 1951, Gyalo Thondup traveled to America and became the main source of information on Tibet for the US Department of State. The American CIA is said to have promised to help make Tibet independent from China in exchange for Thondup's support in organizing guerrilla units to fight against the People's Liberation Army (PLA), an offer which Thondup accepted. According to Wikipedia, Thondup maintains that he did not inform his famous brother about the CIA's actions. CIA support for Tibet ended after the Nixon/Kissinger visit to China in 1972.
Below: After the PRC invaded Tibet in 1950, and then annexed it in 1951, the 14th Dalai Lama tried to work with Mao Zedong's communist government, but at the outset of the 1959 Tibetan uprising, fearing for his life, the Dalai Lama and his retinue fled Tibet with the help of the CIA, crossing into India on March 30, 1959. Picture via Le Monde.
Below: In 1948, Gyalo Thondup married Zhu Dan, the daughter of a Kuomintang general. Via Wikimedia Commons.
Below: Gyalo Thondup in 2009.
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Check our very first episode, the story of a very white man who showed up in London in 1703... and claimed to be from Formosa. Or try a foodie episode from Season 3. Or, for those who want some harder-core history, hear the tale of the Lockheed U-2 pilot Wang Hsi-chueh 王錫爵, who became famous for defecting to the PRC by hijacking China Airlines Flight 334 on May 3, 1986.
