Tenzin Tsundue is a restless young Tibetan, who after graduating from Madras, South India, braved snowstorms and treacherous mountains, broke all rules and restrictions, crossed the Himalayas on foot and went into forbidden Tibet! The purpose? To see the situation under Chinese occupation for himself and find out if he could lend a hand or two in the freedom struggle. He was arrested by the Chinese border police, and after cooling his feet in prison in Lhasa for three months, was finally pushed back to India.
Born to a Tibetan refugee family who laboured on India's border roads around Manali, North India, during the chaotic era of Tibetan refugee resettlement in the early seventies. Tenzin Tsundue is a writer-activist, a rare blend in the Tibetan community in exile.
He published a book of poems 'Crossing The Border' with the money begged and borrowed from his classmates while studying in Mumbai. His literary skills won him the first-ever 'Outlook-Picador Award for Non-Fiction' in 2001. In this all-India essay contest Tsundue took first prize from 900 other entries. His writings have been published in International PEN, The Indian PEN, The Indian Literary Panorama, The Little Magazine, Outlook, The Times of India, The Indian Express, Hindustan Times, Better Photography, The Economic Times, Tehelka, Mid-Day (Mumbai), Afternoon (Mumbai), The Daily Star (Bangladesh), Today (Singapore), Tibetan Review, Tibetan Bulletin, Freedom First, Tibetan World, and Gandhi Marg. He represented Tibet in the Second South Asian Literary Conference in New Delhi in January 2005, which was organised by the premier Indian literary association, Sahitya Academy.
Tsundue joined Friends of Tibet (India) in 1999. Since then he's been working with the organisation as its general secretary. In January 2002 his profile peaked when he scaled scaffolding to the 14th floor of the Oberoi Towers in Mumbai to unfurl a Tibetan national flag and a banner which read "Free Tibet" down the hotel's facade. China's Premier Zhu Rongji was inside the hotel addressing a conference of Indian business tycoons. The world's media featured Tsundue's antics and Indian police officials reportedly congratulated him in prison for standing up for his rights. Recently, in April, he repeated a similar feat with a stunning protest that captured the imagination of the world. Single-handedly, he snatched the world media attention from the visiting Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jia Bao in the south Indian city, Bangalore.





"There was no point in sitting for a hunger strike at Azad Maidan, because Zhu Rongji would not even be aware of it. So I thought of doing something different to protest the Chinese occupation of Tibet and reiterate the Tibetans' demand for freedom," said a charged-up Tenzin Tsundue while sitting amidst the Friends of Tibet at a Churchgate restaurant, minutes after he was released on surety by the Cuffe Parade police.
Looking back on the most eventful day of his life, the 26-year-old attributed his successful demonstration, despite heavy security arrangements, to three factors 'hard work, courage and lots of luck'. Tsundue said, 'It's a mystery how I went unnoticed in spite of heavy police bandobast.'