Tendzin Choegyal Taklha, who has died aged 79, was confidant, sounding board and chief support of the Dalai Lama, his elder brother, throughout the transformation of the Tibetan leader from national political figure to global spiritual powerhouse.
Although Tendzin Choegyal himself was recognised at birth as the 16th incarnation of the Ngari Rinpoché – meaning “precious one of Ngari” – an important reincarnation lineage whose origins lay in western Tibet (modern-day Ladakh), he took the opportunity to forswear monastic life as soon as he could after going into exile in India at the age of 13. Subsequently educated, at the Dalai Lama’s behest, at an English-style public school run by Jesuits in Darjeeling, Tendzin Choegyal gained a psychological insight into western ways. It was this that enabled him to counsel the Dalai Lama as his elder brother began his spiritual mission to the world.
