The Authors

Tenpa and Thongga's father (Pala) was recognised as Sok Shabdrung Dujom Dorjee Rinpoche, the reincarnation of Tsog Jedung and the sixth incarnation in his lineage.

At the age of five he left his mother and his father, who was a doctor and herbalist, to enter Sok Tsanden Gonpa to begin his training as the future Abbot.

At the age of ten, Pala went to Sera Monastery, one of the three large monasteries in the hills outside Lhasa, Tibet’s capital. Pala was in his teens when, on 10 March 1959, the Chinese Red Army bombarded the Potala Palace, the Chakpori Medical Institute and the Main Temple in Lhasa.

Pala was imprisoned several times, in Tibet, by the Chinese authorities, before choosing to join His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, India, in 1983. Pala emigrated to Australia in 2002.

Tenpa Dugdak was born in the town of Sok in Kham province, twelve hours north-east of Lhasa.

When Tenpa was four his mother decided to flee Tibet to be with his father who had escaped the year before. It took 30 days to cross the Himalayas. They travelled mostly in the darkness to avoid being seen by the Chinese troops.

At the age of six he was sent to a Tibetan Homes boarding school in Mussoorie, India and was taught the Tibetan language, Buddhism and the history Tibetan culture. His mother died when he was a little boy. Dugdak moved to Australia with his father, and his two sisters, in 2002.

Tenzin Thongga is Tenpa’s sister.  She  was born in Bouda Tusal, Kathmandu in Nepal. Bouda Tusal is not very big town but many Tibetan refugees live there. She went to boarding school in Dharamsala, northern India.  She lived in a boarding house with thirty other children.  Tenzin emigrated to Australia in 2002.

She had always wanted to return to Tibet because Tibet is her real home, to see the great Potala Palace in Lhasa and how people lived.

Sophie Bouris was born in England but emigrated to Australia in 1986 to study Chinese Medicine, from which she developed an interest in Tibetan Buddhism and Tibetan Medicine.  She lives in Sydney with her family. Sophie has been the catalyst and facilitator for the Our Tibet project.