Namgyal Lhamo Taklha
{{Short description|Tibetan public servant}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2024}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Namgyal Lhamo Taklha
| image = Namgyal Lhamo Taklha.jpg
| caption = Taklha in 2014
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|df=yes|1942|7|5}}
| birth_place = Lhasa, Tibet
| alma_mater = Mount Hermon
| known_for = Tibetan Government in Exile Health General Secretary (1988-1994)
| spouse = Lobsang Samten Taklha
| children = 2
| father = Dundul Namgyal Tsarong
| relatives = Tenzin Gyatso (Brother-in-law)
Tsarong (Grandfather)
}}
Namgyal Lhamo Taklha ({{bo|t=སྟག་ལྷ་རྣམ་རྒྱལ་ལྷ་མོ}}) is a member of the Tibetan community living in exile. Between 1988 and 1994 she was elected to the Parliament of the Central Tibetan Administration and held the post of Health Secretary in the Central Tibetan Administration Cabinet based in India.{{Cite web|url=https://www.shambhala.com/authors/o-t/namgyal-lhamo-taklha.html|title=Namgyal Lhamo Taklha|website=www.shambhala.com|access-date=2019-11-08}}{{Cite web|url=https://tibetanwhoswho.wordpress.com/2011/06/26/namgyal-lhamo-taklha/|title=Namgyal Lhamo Taklha|date=2011-06-26|website=TIBETAN WHO'S WHO|language=en|access-date=2019-11-08}}
Biography
Namgyal was born on 5 July 1942 to aristocratic family in Lhasa, Tibet. Her father was Dundul Namgyal Tsarong. She is the granddaughter of Dasang Dadul Tsaron, Commander General of Tibet{{Cite book|last=Taklha|first=Namgyal Lhamo|title=Born in Lhasa|publisher=Snow Lion|year=2001|isbn=1-55939-102-2|location=Ithaca, NY|pages=9–10}} and a close aid and diplomat of the 13th Dalai Lama. While growing up she attended schools in Tibet and in 1951 at the age of nine she was sent to Mount Hermon School in Darjeeling, India.
Marriage
She married Lobsang Samten Taklha, a brother of the 14th Dalai Lama, in August 1962 in Darjeeling, India.{{Cite book|last=Taklha|first=Namgyal Lhamo|title=Born in Tibet|publisher=Snow Lion|year=2001|isbn=1-55939-102-2|location=Ithaca, NY|pages=96–97}}
Career
Namgyal has held a number of positions associated with the Central Tibetan Administration and 14th Dalai Lama, who is also her brother-in-law. In the early 1960s she worked as a translator and interpreter at the New Delhi based bureau of the 14th Dalai Lama,{{Cite web|url=https://tibetbureau.in/|title=Bureau of His Holiness the Dalai Lama|website=tibetbureau.in|access-date=2019-11-08}} she then took up a post at the Tibet Bureau in Geneva, Switzerland between 1966 and 1972.
In the 1970s she was based in the United States working for a Tibetan Arts and Crafts store in New York City. She then returned to duties at the Tibetan government-in-exile as a translator and director of the Men-Tsee-Khang, also known as the Tibetan Medical and Astrology Institute, between 1986 and 1988.{{Cite web|url=http://www.men-tsee-khang.org/index2.htm|title=Official website of Tibetan Medical & Astrological Institute|website=www.men-tsee-khang.org|access-date=2019-11-08}}
In 1988 she was elected to the Parliament of the Central Tibetan Administration where she held position of Secretary of Health until 1994.
Book published
In 2012 she published an autobiography Born in Lhasa in which she describes her experiences of growing up in Tibet prior to the Annexation of Tibet by the People's Republic of China.