Lobsang Shastri appointed Dalai Lama’s representative at Delhi Bureau
DHARAMSALA, 23 Sept: Former parliamentarian Lobsang Shastri has been appointed as the new Representative of His Holiness the Dalai Lama at the Bureau office in New Delhi.
A statement released by the Kashag Secretariat on Friday confirmed his appointment.
“As per Article 19 (1) of the Public Service Commission’s rules and regulations, the Representative of His Holiness the Dalai Lama at the Offices of Tibet must be appointed by the Kashag in the attendance of Sikyong and the Kalons.”
Lobsang Shastri a former member of the 12th and 13th Tibetan Parliament will now succeed Dongchung Ngodup, former Minister for the Department of Security of Central Tibetan Administration.
The new representative of Dalai Lama’s Delhi Bureau holds a Shastri degree (equivalent to BA) from the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies, Sarnath, Varanasi. He initially joined the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives (LTWA) as a translator in 1985 and later the Chief Librarian of the Tibetan Manuscript Department from 1988 – 2009. Additionally, he also served as the Editor-in-Chief of LTWA’s Tibet Journal.
Besides, he worked as a Tibetan language instructor at the Department of History of Religion at Oslo University, Norway, in 1994 and as a Lecturer/Visiting scholar at the Department of Central Eurasian Studies, Indiana University, USA in 2006.
Since 2004, Shastri is a senior Liberian at the Buddhist Digital Resource Center (BDRC), formerly the Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center (TBRC).
He is also an Advisory Board Member of the IATS, a position he was elected to in 2003.