Kelsang Dorjee "Kaydor" Aukatsang () is a Tibetan politician and candidate for the

Central Tibetan Administration The Central Tibetan Administration (, , ) is the government-in-exile of Tibet, based in Dharamshala, India. It comprises a judiciary branch, a legislative branch, and an executive branch, and offers support and services to the Tibetan exile c ...

office of

Sikyong The () is the political leader of the Central Tibetan Administration, a Tibetan exile organisation in India also known as the Tibetan government-in-exile based on the 2011 Charter of Tibetans-in-exile. The title was created in 2012 after the ...

. Kaydor was a close aide of the previous

, Dr. Lobsang Sangay, under whom he held various official positions including, the role of North America representative for the

Dalai Lama The Dalai Lama (, ; ) is the head of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. The term is part of the full title "Holiness Knowing Everything Vajradhara Dalai Lama" (圣识一切瓦齐尔达喇达赖喇嘛) given by Altan Khan, the first Shu ...

, Chief Resilience Officer of the Central Tibetan Administration and the Director of the Social and Resource Development Fund (SARD).

Early life

Aukatsang was born in

Kalimpong Kalimpong is a town and the headquarters of an eponymous district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is located at an average elevation of . The town is the headquarters of the Kalimpong district. The region comes under Gorkhaland Territo ...

in 1968. He was the son of Jampa Kalden Aukatsang, former Secretary of the Department of Security, CTA; and Dickyi Dolkar. Growing up, he attended SFF Tibetan School,

Chakrata Chakrata is a cantonment town and also a sub district/tehsil, in Dehradun district. in the state of Uttarakhand, India. It lies between the Tons River, Tons and Yamuna rivers, at an elevation of 2118 m, 98 km from the state capital, Dehrad ...

;

St. Augustine's School, Kalimpong St. Augustine's School is an Anglo-Indian School in the hill station town of Kalimpong in West Bengal, India, established in 1945. About St. Augustine's is a minority Christian School established and administered by the Roman Catholic Diocese ...

; and

St Joseph's Academy, Dehradun St. Joseph's Academy, Dehradun (SJA) is a co-educational Indian Certificate of Secondary Education school in Dehradun, the capital of the state of Uttarakhand in India. Founded in 1934, the school is governed by the Society of the Brothers of ...

Education

From 1973 to 1975, studied at SFF Tibetan School,

, India, then, from 1975 to 1986, studied at St. Augustine’s School, Kalimpong, India; and from 1986 to 1988, he studied at

, India; In 1991, Aukatsang graduated with honors with a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

in English Literature from the prestigious St. Stephen's College, Delhi. From 1996 to 1998, he studied at

The Fletcher School at Tufts University The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy is the graduate school of international affairs of Tufts University, in Medford, Massachusetts. Fletcher is one of America's oldest graduate schools of international relations. As of 2017, the student bo ...

, Boston, USA, with a

Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy is the graduate school of international affairs of Tufts University, in Medford, Massachusetts. Fletcher is one of America's oldest graduate schools of international relations. As of 2017, the student bo ...

(MALD), focusing on international business relations and China studies. The course content includes finance, international business strategy and Chinese foreign policy (MALD).

Career

Aukatsang has served a plethora of roles within various communities in the

Tibetan diaspora The Tibetan diaspora is the relocation of Tibetan people from Tibet, their land of origin, to other nation states to live as exiles and refugees in communities. The diaspora of Tibetan people began in the early 1950s, peaked after the 1959 Tibe ...

including President of the Capital Area Tibetan Association, as well as President of the Tibetan Association of Northern California and Assistant to the Tibet Secretary-General Lobsang Sangay. Within the CTA, Aukatsang held the roles of Special Advisor to the

, Representative of the Dalai Lama to

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

, and Chief

Resilience Resilience, resilient, or resiliency may refer to: Science Ecology * Ecological resilience, the capacity of an ecosystem to recover from perturbations ** Climate resilience, the ability of systems to recover from climate change ** Soil resilien ...

Officer of the CTA and the Director of the Social and Resource Development Fund (SARD) under incumbent Sikyong

Lobsang Sangay Lobsang Sangay (, ; born 5 September 1968) is a Tibetan-American politician in exile who was Kalon Tripa of the Tibetan Administration in India from 2011 to 2012, and Sikyong of the Central Tibetan Administration in India from 2012 to 2021. T ...

’s administration. During his role as SARD officer, he managed to secure substantial grants and financial aids from USA and Canadian government for the CTA's coffers. He was also previously a member of the Initial Steering Committee for the

Global Philanthropy Forum The Global Philanthropy Forum (GPF) is an initiative of the World Affairs Council which acts as a peer-learning network of philanthropists — grant-makers and social investors — committed to advancing equity and opportunity in the d ...

, board member for the

Tibet Justice Center Tibet Justice Center, (TJC, formerly International Committee of Lawyers for Tibet, ICLT) is an American legal association founded in 1989 that advocates human rights and self-determination for the Tibetan people. Profile The association is a non-g ...

, and International Advisory Committee member of

The Mountain Institute The Mountain Institute (TMI) is an international non-profit organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., and operates regional field offices in the Andes, Appalachians, and Himalayas. Respectively, these are the longest, the oldest, and the ta ...

. There, he participated in the 29th, 30th, 31st and 32nd meetings of the Task Force on Sino-Tibetan Dialogue as a Special Guest. Other positions he has held include Trustee of the Dalai Lama Trust (2013-2019), Honorary Chairman of

Tibet House US Tibet House US (THUS) is a Tibetan cultural preservation and education 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded in 1987 in New York City by a group of Westerners after the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, expressed his wish to establish a cultural inst ...

(2013-2016), International Advisory Committee member of The Mountain Institute (2009-2012), Co-Chair of the Grantmakers Without Borders (2001–2003), Board member of Tibet Justice Center (2003-2004), Member of Initial Steering Committee of Global Philanthropy Forum (2001-2003).

Sikyong campaign

On September 2, 2020, Aukatsang announced his candidacy for the office of

. After the primary election on January 8, Aukatsang has become one of the two leaders in the primary election. The top two candidates will go to the second round of voting in April. On December 4, 2020 , Aukatsang confirmed that he had tested positive for the

coronavirus Coronaviruses are a group of related RNA viruses that cause diseases in mammals and birds. In humans and birds, they cause respiratory tract infections that can range from mild to lethal. Mild illnesses in humans include some cases of the comm ...

, briefly halting his campaign. His rival Penpa Tsering, who leans on Middle Way policy and conservative section of the society, won the presidential race in May 2021.

Post election activities

On 30 August 2021, Kaydor Aukatsang penned an article titled " ''Crisis of Leadership and Democracy in Peril''" He is currently a nonresident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council.

References