Tenzin Geyche Tethong has been a trusted companion and aide to His Holiness, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, for over four decades and is part of a legacy of service; his own father was second in command of the Thirteenth Dalai Lama’s bodyguard and his forefathers were officially commended by the Dalai Lama for their service to Tibet. Born in 1943 in Lhasa, Tethong first joined the Tibetan administrative service in 1961 before being deputed to the Private Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama three years later. He served in the Private Office until retiring in 2007 as Secretary (English Section). As part of his role, he worked as the Dalai Lama’s personal assistant, accompanying him on several official international visits, including his meeting with Pope Paul VI at the Vatican in 1973, his historic first trip to America in 1979, and the Nobel Prize ceremony in Oslo in 1989. In addition, he was Deputy Director of the Department of Information and International Relations and also established its first Department of Health in the 1980s. This is the first time that he has written about his remarkable years as one of His Holiness’ closest aides.
