Kazi, S.

PersonType	Category:Editors Category:Translators
FirstName / namefirst	Sonam
LastName / namelast	Kazi
namemiddle	T.
MainNamePhon	Sonam Kazi
SortName	Kazi, Sonam
bio	Sonam Topgyal Kazi (Tibetan: བསོད་ནམས་སྟོབས་རྒྱལ་ཀ་ཛི, Wylie: Bsod nams stobs rgyal ka dzi), born in Rhenock Sikkim on January 1, 1925 and died in Saugerties, New York on June 13, 2009, is a writer and translator. A specialist in Dzogchen, he has translated numerous works. Born in Sikkim in 1925, he was the fifth son of Relon Sonam Dadul Renock Kazi, a Sikkim government official. During his childhood, his father, who met the 13th Dalai Lama twice, shared his knowledge about Tibet with him, awakening his interest in Tibetan Buddhism. As a boy, he was a student of the Scottish Universities Mission Institution in Kalimpong and St. Stephen's College in Delhi. After completing his studies in 1948, the Sikkim government appointed him as interpreter and guide during the first pilgrimage visit to India of the 16th Karmapa. When a position became available in Tibet, he applied and became an interpreter and translator with the Indian mission in Tibet between January 1949 and October 1955. In 1956, together with the Indian diplomat Apa Pant and the Crown Prince of Sikkim Palden Thondup Namgyal, he received, on the Indian side of the Nathu La, the 14th Dalai Lama when the latter visited India on the occasion of the 2,500th anniversary of the birth of the Buddha Siddhartha Gautama. Sonam Togpyal Kazi visited Tibet in 1957-58 as a member of an Indian delegation to consider a visit by Indian Prime Minister Nehru, which took place in October 1958. Kazi was sent by the Government of India to welcome the 14th Dalai Lama when he arrived in exile in India in 1959. He was the Dalai Lama's chief interpreter for 13 years, until 1972. He assisted David Armine Howarth in the English translation of the Dalai Lama's first autobiography, My Land and My People, published in 1962. In 1965, he was director of Tibet House in India, and wrote the Wisdom and Compassion catalogue for the Tibetan art exhibition in New Delhi. He welcomed Thomas Merton when he visited the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala in 1968. Sonam Kazi supervised some aspects of the editing of Arnaud Desjardins films on Tibetan masters, and it was in this capacity that he went to France in 1968. According to Havnevik Hanna, quoting Arnaud Desjardins, Sonam Topgyal Kazi's daughter, Jetsun Pema, was recognized by the 14th Dalai Lama and the 16th Karmapa as the reincarnation of Jetsun Lochen Rinpoche (Lochen Chönyi Zangmo) who was a teacher of Sonam Topgyal Kazi and his wife. He stated in his writings that Tibet was a peaceful and independent country, notably in an account of his experience in Tibet before the Chinese invasion published in 1994 and quoted by Melvyn C. Goldstein. This important testimony for Tibetans was published in 1994 in Tibetan Bulletin. (Adapted from Source April 18, 2025)
YearBirth	1925
YearDeath	2009
BornIn	Sikkim
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