New Delhi (India), 9 Feb. (LaPresse/AP) – Gyalo Thondup, older brother of the Dalai Lama and former president of the Tibetan government in exile in India, has died at the age of 97. According to local media reports, Thondup died at his home in Kalimpong, a town at the foot of the Himalayas in the Indian state of West Bengal. No further details about his death have been released at this time. Tibetan media credited Thondup with having networked with foreign governments and praised his role in facilitating US support for the Tibetan struggle. The Dalai Lama led a prayer session for Thondup at a monastery in the town of Bylakuppe, in the Indian state of Karnataka on Sunday, where the spiritual leader is spending the winter months. Thondup, one of the six brothers of the Tibetan spiritual leader, has been living in India since 1952 and helped to develop the first contacts with the Indian and US governments to seek support for Tibet.
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