Background
He was born in 1903 in Rabkong, Amdo.
He was born in 1903 in Rabkong, Amdo.
His life was the inspiration for Luc Schaedler"s film The Angry Monk: Reflections on Tibet and The Madman"s Middle Way: Reflections on Reality of the Tibetan Monk Gendun Chophel. He is best known for his collection of essays called Grains of Gold: Tales of a Cosmopolitan Pilgrimage, written during his time in India and Sri Lanka in between 1934 and 1946. While condemning places and events like the Black Hole of Calcutta and the Goa Inquisition, he praised certain British colonial practices like the abolition of sati.
He was a creative and controversial figure and he is considered by many to have been one of the most important Tibetan intellectuals of the twentieth century.