Gyalo Thondup, Political Operator and Brother of the Dalai Lama, Dies at 97

Gyalo Thondup, the eldest brother of the Dalai Lama and a political operator in Tibet and the greater region, has died, the Dalai Lama’s office confirmed in a statement. He died on Sunday in Kalimpong in West Bengal, India, according to Tibetan media. He was 97.

“He was a good man who did his best for the Tibetan cause,” the Dalai Lama said in the statement. “I pray that he will take a good rebirth as a Tibetan again and that he will be able to serve the Tibetan administration that is a combination of spirituality and politics once more,” he said, referring to the Buddhist belief in the cycle of rebirth.

A prominent figure in Tibetan society and politics, Mr. Thondup has been called the second-most influential person in the small Himalayan territory, eclipsed only by his brother, Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama and head of Tibetan Buddhism.

Together, the brothers defined a political era in Tibet, the increasingly isolated territory nestled in the Himalayas that has long battled Chinese influence and control. While the Dalai Lama has often been more public-facing, courting worldwide attention and accolades, Mr. Thondup was seen as a reserved, geopolitical operator who was more comfortable away from the spotlight.

For decades, Mr. Thondup advocated for paths to allow his brother — exiled since 1959 — to return to the territory. He kept the company of international leaders, hoping to leverage various stakeholders in the service of Tibetan independence.

One of six children born to farmers in the Chinese town of Takster, Mr. Thondup served as a lifelong adviser and advocate for his younger brother. Sent abroad to study, he was the only one of his siblings not destined for religious life.

Freed from spiritual obligations, Mr. Thondup spent his life working for Tibetan autonomy, sometimes more aggressively than others.

Mr. Thondup settled in India in 1952 and was an early mediator when the Dalai Lama fled there after the failed 1959 Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule. Mr. Thondup would later call his brother’s safe passage to India one of his greatest achievements.

Mr. Thondup would go on to cultivate some of the first official Tibetan contacts with Indian and American authorities in the 1950s and 1960s, asking for their support. In the 1950s, he aided the C.I.A. in an ill-fated attempt to arm Tibetan separatists against the Communist Chinese government.

Mr. Thondup periodically met with Chinese leaders in efforts to ease Chinese influence over Tibet. Even as talks broke down in recent years, he urged Tibetans to stay engaged.

“It’s essential for Tibetan people not to lose hope in pleading for our rights to the Chinese government,” Mr. Thondup said at a news conference in 2008. He published an autobiography in 2015, “The Noodlemaker of Kalimpong,” about his life of activism and the Tibetan struggle against Chinese rule.

The Dalai Lama led a prayer service on Sunday for his brother, his office said.

After the service, as the recitation concluded, the Dalai Lama rose from his seat, saluted a photo of his late brother and returned to his living space, the statement from his office said.

Mujib Mashal contributed reporting.