Padma Choling

Background

Padma Choling was born in 1952 in a farming family in Dêngqên County, Chamdo Prefecture.

Education

Central Party School of the Communist Party of China.

Career

He was the eighth and Chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), China, but in January 2013, was replaced by his deputy Losang Jamcan. He now heads the Tibet Autonomous Region People"s Congress. He joined the People"s Liberation Army in Qinghai Province at 17, and served in the army for seventeen years.

In the army he played basketball and mastered the Chinese language.

He joined the Communist Party of China in October 1970. He was an official in the Tibetan regional government since December 1969, working in Xigaze and then Lhasa, rising to the vice-chairmanship of the TAR in 2003.

After his anodyne handling of an earthquake in Damxung County outside Lhasa, he was elected the chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Region in 2010. Personally, he has been described as "stern, but.. amiable" in contrast to his "soft-spoken" predecessor Qiangba Puncog.

In addition to stability and ethnic harmony, he has set a goal of 12 percent Gross Domestic Product growth and a ¥4,000 per capita Gross Domestic Product for farmers and herders in the Tibet Autonomous Region.

To bring this about, he has signed an agreement with the Ministry of Commerce of the Central Government to allow it to promote trade with South Asia, including Nepal. Padma is of the opinion that there is no "issue of Tibet" that the Dalai Lama says, and questions the Lama"s ability to judge the situation in Tibet since he has not been in Tibet since 1959. On the issue of religion, Padma has said that he and the Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje are "mates from the same hometown".

Already, he has dismissed the Dalai Lama"s choice for the 11th Panchen Lama as "invalid".

He has included monks and nuns over the age of 60 into the Chinese state social security, and works with legislation delivering roads, electricity, and water to monasteries.

Membership

Padma is a member of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.

Connections

subordinate:

Zhang Qingli