Born in Darjeeling, groomed in Harvard, PM pines for homeland

His journey has taken him from Darjeeling to Harvard and back to Dharamsala, but one place he dreams of going to is Tibet, his homeland, where he has never been but whose government-in-exile he now heads.
Dr Lobsang Sangay, 43, legal scholar and political activist born in Darjeeling in a family that had fled Tibet, took oath as the Kalon Tripa (Prime Minister) of Tibetans in exile. He is the first one elected directly, the Dalai Lama having retired as political leader.
“The result of this election should send a clear message to hardliners in the Chinese government that Tibetan leadership is far from fizzling out,” he said in his inaugural address. “I pledge to strengthen and sustain our movement until freedom is restored in Tibet, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama returns to our homeland.”
Later, he told reporters he too wishes to visit his homeland and visit the only surviving member of his father's family, an uncle. He said his father, who was a monk, had taken up arms against the Chinese Army. During their escape, his grandfather and an uncle were killed while a pregnant aunt committed suicide, allegedly forced to do so because she had refused to submit to the Chinese Army. The surviving uncle was forced to return to Tibet. 
“My uncle last spoke to me in 2008, and expressed a wish to see my family and me,” says Sangay, whose wife and children live in the US. “I want to see the last surviving member of my grandfather’s family. We shall return to our homeland, for sure.”  

Educated in a Darjeeling school and Delhi University, he became in 2004 the first Tibetan to get a doctorate in law from Harvard, the subject being the democracy and history of the government-in-exile. In 1992, he had been elected the youngest executive member of the Tibetan Youth Congress and met the Dalai Lama. In 2007, in Vienna, the Asia Society and a global team including delegates to the World Justice Forum named him among the 24 top young leaders of Asia.
To contest the poll, he resigned as senior fellow in Harvard’s East Asian Legal Studies. He called his new job a dream come true. “It is the dream of every Tibetan to lead the Tibetans one day. The day has come for me and I will try my best to meet the expectations of six million Tibetans.”
In his address, he stressed the “middle-path” to “genuine autonomy for Tibet within the People’s Republic of China”; the Dalai Lama said he was happy his ideology has been implemented. 
Sangay is widely respected as an expert in international law and conflict resolution. He has organised several major conferences among Chinese, Tibetan, Indian and Western scholars, including two meetings between the Dalai Lama and Chinese scholars.
~IE