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Penpa Tsering (Tibetan: སྤེན་པ་ཚེ་རིང་) is a Tibetan politician and former Speaker of the Tibetan Parliament in Exile, Dharamsala.

Naming Practice

Tibetan Names are either given by Buddhist Lamas or by their parents. Names given by Lamas are normally either linked to their own names or has religious meaning. Parents give simple names. There are many who are named after the day they were born. Penpa (སྤེན་པ་) meaning 'Saturday' and Tsering (ཚེ་རིང་) meaning 'long life'.

Early life

Penpa Tsering’s parents came to India following His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama’s exile in 1959. His father hails from Amdo Chentsa and mother from Shigatse in Tsang. Just as many other Tibetan families in exile, his parents were farmers at the south Indian Tibetan rehabilitation settlement of Bylakuppe. He was born in 1967 (wrongly registered as 1963 in the documents). He is the third of three brothers and six sisters. He studied at the Central School for Tibetans at Bylakuppe and topped in merit list among all Tibetans in his Higher Secondary Schools Examination in 1985. He graduated with economics major from Madras Christian College in 1988. During his college days, he worked part time in a restaurant to financially support his education.

3. Public Service Career

• 1981-1985: School prefect for more than 3 years during his school life
• 1986-1988: General Secretary of the local Tibetan Freedom Movement and Nigerian Tibetan Students Friendship Association
• 1994-1996: General Secretary of the Dhomay Central Executive Committee in Dharamsala
• 1996-2016: Member of Tibetan Parliament in Exile in Dharamsala
• 2001-2008: Executive Director of Tibetan Parliamentary and Policy Research Centre in New Delhi
• 2008-2016: Speaker of Tibetan Parliament in Exile in Dharamsala
• 2016-2017: Representative of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to North America in Washington DC

Social entrepreneurial and political initiatives

• In 1985, during his school days, he organized student led drama groups
• In 1985, he was instrumental in realizing the initiative to organize the first ever all India excursion for grade XII students
• 1987: He formed the Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry Tibetan Freedom Movement along with Katak Rinpoche and other Tibetan students
• 1987: He was the founding General Secretary of the Nigerian Tibetan Students Friendship Association
• 1987-1988: Along with Katak Rinpoche, he helped the Tibetan Sweater sellers in the State of Tamil Nadu in the problems they face with local police and municipal authorities.
• 1988-1989: He organized many peaceful protests and demonstrations in Chennai to create awareness and to garner support for the Tibetans in Tibet, whose peaceful demonstration in and around Lhasa were ruthlessly suppressed by the Chinese government in 1987 and 1988
• 1990-2000: He ran a Tibetan restaurant and managed a carpet export company in Pondicherry
• 1995: Organized the Dhomay long-life prayer offering to His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama to commemorate the 60th, 70th and 80th birth anniversary His Holiness in 1995, 2005 and 2015 respectively
• 1995: Was part of the committee that organized the ‘March to Lhasa’
• 1996-2001: Took part in parliamentary committees, particularly the Budget Estimate Committee and worked towards reforming presentation of the budget in the parliament for better parliamentary oversight
• 2001: Was part of the Budget Presentation Review Committee set up by Kalon Tripa Prof. Samdhong Rinpoche
• 2002: Reestablished the All-Party Indian Parliamentary Forum for Tibet
• 2002: Was part of the leadership that organized a week-long Tibetan Festival of Compassion participated by all Tibetan organizations in Delhi
• 2003: Part of the organizing committee of the 4th International Tibet Support Groups Conference (ITSG) in Prague followed by the 5th Conference in 2006 in Brussels
• 2004: Organized Youth Leadership programs for grade XI and university students in Dharamsala every year- a pioneer project physically introducing Dharamsala to the future Tibetan leadership
• 2004: Organized the International Conference of Autonomies for Tibet and another one in 2006 with experts from many autonomous regions around the world in line the official Tibetan Policy of the Middle Way Approach.
• 2005: Since 2005, organized numerous workshop to empower the Local Tibetan assemblies (local legislatures) at the grass-root level
• 2005: Organized the first ever 11 member Tibetan Parliamentary Delegation visit to Belgium, South Tyrol and UK with local partners as part of learning and advocacy work
• 2005: Organized the 4th World Parliamentarians Convention on Tibet (WPCT) in Scotland with the Scottish Parliamentary Group for Tibet and ICT after a long gap of 8 years since the 3rd WPCT.
• 2006: Organized His Holiness’ address to the Indian Parliamentarians at the Parliament Annex led by the All-Party Indian Parliamentary Forum for Tibet
• 2008: Was one of the 5 member Tibetan parliamentary Crisis Committee to collect information from inside Tibet, strategize and execute initiatives in response to the Chinese government’s repression of the large-scale peaceful demonstrations all over Tibet
• 2008-2016: Travelled to many countries in Europe, North America and Australia to advocate for Tibet
• 2009: Organized the 5th WPCT in Rome with Italian Parliamentary Group for Tibet and International Campaign for Tibet (ICT).
• 2009: Introduced territorial responsibilities for members of parliament to increase accountability of elected representatives to the electorate.
• 2010-2011: Oversaw the whole process of devolution of His Holiness’ administrative and political responsibilities to the elected political leadership
• 2012: Organized the 6th WPCT in Ottawa with the Canadian Parliamentary Friends of Tibet and ICT
• 2016: Was one of the final two candidates for the post of Sikyong (political leader) in the Central Tibetan Administration general election, 2016.
• 2016-17: Lobbied with the White House, the State Department and US Congress for political and programmatic support for Tibet
• 2016-17: Visited 26 out of 29 Tibetan Associations in North America to engage with the Tibetans and empower the local Tibetan Associations; organized two North American Tibetan Weekend Class conferences and two North American Tibetan Associations
• 2016-17: Visited numerous Tibetan Buddhist Centers
• 2017: Helped organize the high level bi-partisan US Congressional Delegation to Dharamsala led by Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi
• 2017: Coordinated security arrangements with Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) for His Holiness’ visit to US