I shall appreciate if you will kindly post this on to the Bishop Cotton alumni site, so Kunsang’s contemporaries may be informed of his demise. We are proud that our uncle attended this prestigious school and received a great education, as well as other relatives of our family who graduated from Bishop Cotton.

9/16/10:
Dear Family and Friends, Last night Paljor, my brother brought the sad news on the passing away of our dearest uncle Kunsang Namdol, known as KN Shakabpa. Uncle KN was the oldest among his siblings, who attended St. Joseph’s School in Darjeeling and completed his Senior Cambridge at Bishop Cotton School, in 1954. He completed his college degree at the Mitchell College in Connecticut. He was instrumental in assisting his late father during the early years of the exile plight of the Tibetan refugees. Later he was a primary interpreter to his father’s Tibetan Political History text. His father was the last Finance Minister of independent Tibet, and the Dalai Lama’s first principal representative to New Delhi from 1959-66.

He spent his last years in a state of blindness having lost his eyesight. He had so much information, and a lot of this went into the online pictorial website ‘The Tibetan Exodus’, from the interviews I had with him. His intelligence was brilliant, and his knowledge was vast. As with every human with weaknesses, and on my reflection for him, I felt he could have achieved more with a generous dose of wisdom. He was though a very sweet man. He was 74 when he passed away on September 16th, 2010.

Paljor, my brother took much loving care for him, as well as there was a deep concern for his well being from his loving sister Chukiela Shakabpa Wangdu, his brother TN Shakabpa, sister-in-law Norzin Tsarong Shakabpa, and the many nieces, nephews and relatives including myself. He was known to many fellow North Pointers and Old Cottonians. We shall appreciate if a small prayer was said for him, as this will be the biggest gift you all can shower him.

Respectfully,
Jigme D. Shakabpa
Madison Wisconsin USA