Thubten Kunphela

Kunphela in Kalimpong
Kunphela and Tashi Dhondup with Baby Austin at Dekyi-Lingka (the British Residence) in 1933 Lhasa
The Tibetan coin mint Drapshi Lekhung photographed by Frederick Williamson on August 31, 1933, the official Kunphel is on the extreme right. He was responsible for the modernization of the Tibetan National Mint.

Thubten Kunphel (Tibetan: ཐུབ་བསྟན་ཀུན་འཕེལ, Wylie: thub bstan kun vphel, 1905 – 1963), commonly known as Kunphela, was a Tibetan politician and one of the most powerful political figures in Tibet during the later years of the 13th Dalai Lama's rule, known as the "strong man of Tibet".[1][2] Kunphela was arrested and exiled after the death of the Dalai Lama in 1933. He later escaped to India and became a co-founder of the India-based Tibet Improvement Party with the aim of establishing a secular government in Tibet. He worked in Nanking after the attempt to start a revolution in Tibet failed, and returned to Tibet in 1948.[3]

  1. ^ Goldstein 1989, pp. 147–155.
  2. ^ Shakabpa 1984, p. 274.
  3. ^ Goldstein 1989, p. 475.