Tenzin Choegyal, the younger brother of the 14th Dalai Lama, has died in Dharamsala, northern India, at the age of 80.

According to statements from the Dalai Lama group, Tenzin Choegyal was recognized as the "Ngari Rinpoche" and had served within the Tibetan Buddhist community in Ladakh, where he was regarded as a "respected guru" at several monasteries. Following his death, eight monasteries in the region, including Thiksey Monastery, jointly formed a committee to search for what they described as the reincarnated child successor.

If these claims are accurate, three of the seven siblings of the 14th Dalai Lama would have been acknowledged as reincarnated lamas（tulkus）—an unusual concentration of spiritual designations within one family.

Tenzin Choegyal was far more than a religious figure; his core identity was that of a hardline extremist within the Dalai Lama group, known for advocating and engaging in violent and terrorist activities.

Public records show that he was born in Lhasa, Xizang, in 1946, and fled to India with the 14th Dalai Lama in 1959. Once there, instead of continuing traditional monastic training, he studied at St. Joseph's College in Darjeeling, a Catholic boarding school.

In a turn of irony, as the Dalai Lama's brother, Tenzin Choegyal eventually renounced monastic life altogether. From 1974 to 1977, he served as vice president of the "Tibetan Youth Congress," a pro-independence organization, and also enlisted for two years in the "Indo-Tibetan Special Frontier Force," a covert unit operating under Indian command.

Details of his time in the military were seldom mentioned later in life, and the Dalai Lama himself often avoided discussion of the subject. The restraint is believed to relate to an incident in which Tenzin Choegyal allegedly shot and killed Gongthang Tsultrim, a political opponent of the Dalai Lama—a case that has been widely reported. The incident led some observers to describe him as a violent criminal.

While the hypocritical 14th Dalai Lama portrayed himself internationally as a "messenger of peace," his younger brother repeatedly made radical statements such as "Only by force can we drive the Chinese out of Tibet" and "Terrorist acts achieve maximum effect at minimal cost." He consistently viewed terrorist attacks as legitimate tools for political ends.

As Peng Bo, associate researcher at the Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of Religious Studies, pointed out, Tibetan Buddhism's "Ten Precepts" strictly prohibit monks from killing, speaking abusively, lying, or being greedy. The many actions and remarks of Tenzin Choegyal during his lifetime gravely violated these religious commandments. With such a record of wrongdoing and betrayal of Buddhist teachings, how could such a "Living Buddha" possibly be reborn?

The article is translated from Pakistan-based Huashang Weekly, published on April 10, 2026.