10 January 2006
Antique Tibetan passport bought by exiled Tibetans
Tibetan refugees in India have collected half a million Indian Rupees (UK£6,416; US$11,317; EUR€9,356) to buy Tibet's first passport from a Nepali antique trader. The document was first published by its owner, Tsepon Shakabpa as an appendix to his book ‘Tibet: A Political History’ in 1966, but it is then said to have been lost 13 years ago. The passport, which was issued in 1947 by the Tibetan government, bears stamps of the countries that issued visas to Tsepon Shakabpa (Britain, USA, France and Switzerland), the then finance secretary (1930-50) to the Tibetan government. “We have collected the money from Tibetan refugees in India, and it will be paid to the Pemachuding monastery in Nepal, which had paid the money in advance to the antique dealer in Kathmandu,” said Mr Tenzin Tsundue, secretary of the Friends of Tibet (FOT). “Finding this passport is significant, as it is an important historical record which shows that several countries of the world recognised Tibet as an independent country, and issued visas to the bearer of the passport Tsepon Shakabpa,” said Lobsang Tsultrin, a senior official of the Tibetan government in exile.