Profile

The Tibet Development Fund (TDF) is a GONGO (Government-Organised Non-Governmental Organisation) which started as an initiative of the 10^th Panchen Lama Choekyi Gyaltsen and former Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) Chairman Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme. It was incepted in the 1980s under the direction of the the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) United Front Work Department (UFWD) as an official body intended to fill Chinese coffers in the Tibetan region. Its statute describes its fundraising range as “Nationwide, Overseas patriotic Tibetan, and other organisations, individuals and governments internationally.”

The idea of the TDF had been mooted as far back as 1983, when the politically rehabilitated 10^th Panchen Lama, working for the Buddhist revival under Zhao Puchu (President of state-controlled Buddhist Association of China) met with the “patriotic overseas Tibetan” Akong Tulku in Beijing after his first visit to Tibet, where he had been recruited by the UFWD. The Panchen Lama asked Akong to contribute to a self-sufficient socialist “new Tibet” by financing the special fund being created in China for this purpose. Akong returned to Tibet in 1984, accepting “to enter into the TDF”. The TDF’s “donor hall of fame” lists the “British Patriotic Tibetan Akong” as having given first in 1989 an amount of 152,500 Yuan to support Chinese “Education” in Chamdo Prefecture. Cooperation between Akong's “Rokpa” organisation and the TDF continued, and in the following years this diversification of the “Tibetan cause” proved efficient, with substantial sums raised from European donors.

Further discussions progressed in 1984 between Zheng Ying, Kashol Chonyi Nyima, and Samding Dorje Pakmo. In 1987 the TDF’s Preparatory Committee was established in Beijing. Zheng Ying, minister of the UFWD’s TAR branch and one of the generation of Tibetan cadres who joined the PLA’s march to Tibet in the early 1950s was appointed as General Secretary. The Panchen Lama and Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme assumed positions of Directors of the committee. In 1992, the TDF was formally established. Ngapo Ngawang Jigme was elected President, Pagbalha Geleg Namgyai (CPPCC Vice Chairman) and former TAR Chairman Tian Bao (aka Sanggyai Yexe), were both elected as Vice Presidents.

TDF is the only national level fundraising foundation in the TAR. As well as implementing health-related and disaster relief aid projects, an initiative to provide nomads with solar-powered equipment, the TDF has programs to support education and “cultural development”. In November 2015, the 11^th Panchen Lama Gyaincain Norbu was appointed Chairman of the TDF.

Notable Officials

• Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme, Co-Founder, President (1992-2009)
• Panchen Lama Choekyi Gyaltsen, Co-Founder, Vice President (1992-1989)
• Zheng Ying, General Secretary, Preparatory Committee (1987-1992)
• Pagbalha Geleg Namgyai, Co-Founder, Vice President (1992-)
• Tian Bao, Co-Founder, Vice President
• Samding Dorje Pakmo, Consultant
• Panchen Lama Gyaincain Norbu, Chairman (2015-)