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Veronique Renard

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File:Pantau.JPG
Pantau in 2008

Véronique Françoise Caroline Renard (born 26 May, 1965 in Jutphaas, the Netherlands) is an author and pro-Tibet activist. She is also known as Pantau, a name that was adopted after meeting the Dalai Lama at an audience at his home in McLeodganj, Dharamsala, India in 2000.[1] The name Pantau (also written in Roman as Phentok), means "to be helpful" or "beneficial". Pantao (蟠桃) is also a Chinese name for a flat, small peach, reputed to be food for Taoist fairies.

Early life

Renard was raised and educated in the Netherlands. She is the youngest child of Annie Garda Van Unen (born 1931 in Breda), a former senior accountant of the Breda Candy Company FAAM, and Wilhelmus (Wim) Gerardus Renard (born 1931 in Rotterdam), a businessman who founded the REACS Company in 1956. Renard has one older sister, Monique Renate Caroline Renard (born 1963 in Hilversum). At age 17, after a family-dispute, Monique broke off all contact with her family and friends and hasn’t been heard of ever since. Veronique Renard is a descendant of the renowned German composer/conductor Paul Albin Stenz who was awarded the Gold Medal of Orange-Nassau by Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands. One year prior to his death in 1918 he was naturalized as a Dutch citizen. Renard's grandfather, Johannes (Paul) Renard was a cityscape painter in Rotterdam. Renard speaks (in order of fluency) Dutch, English, German, French, Thai and Tibetan.

Gender Dysphoria

Apart from her disabilities of dyslexia and colour blindness, Renard has also been troubled by Intense Gender Dysphoria Syndrome. In 1982, at the age of 17, she transitioned from male to female with the full support of her family, friends and the people in her hometown. Renard's mother renamed her Véronique. In 1983, Renard was granted permission by a court in Utrecht to change her legal male given names into female given names. Renard added her second name Françoise (after her best friend), and third name Caroline (after Caroline Cossey, a British model who appeared in the 1981 James Bond-film For Your Eyes Only with Roger Moore). Initially unaware of the phenomenon of transsexualism and Gender Reassignment Surgery, Renard conveys in her 2007 memoir that the international media attention around Cossey in 1982 regarding her gender change helped Renard to self-diagnose her own gender identity disorder. The day after reading about Cossey in a Dutch tabloid, Renard consulted her GP and shortly after the Amsterdam Gender Team. Six weeks later Renard started her Hormone Replacement Therapy. Renard was rushed through her physical transition which was completed 18 months later in 1984. Renard was one of the first 150 persons to receive contemporary Gender Reassignment Surgery in the Netherlands. Prof. Dr. Louis Gooren M.D. Ph.D.[2] (professor of endocrinology at the special chair of transsexology at the Free University Amsterdam) guided Renard through the process of her gender reassignment. The medical team involved in Renard's gender reassignment (hormone replacement therapy, breast augmentation, penectomy, orchiectomy, vulvaplasty, neo-cliteroplasty, colovaginoplasty, trachea-reduction) are Prof. Dr. Louis Gooren, (Free University Hospital, Amsterdam) Dr. Gorter, plastic surgeon (Westeinde Hospital, The Hague), Dr. Auke de Boer, plastic surgeon (Academic Hospital of Groningen), Dr. J. Joris Hage, plastic surgeon (Free University Hospital, Amsterdam), Dr. Drogendijk and Dr. Jager, gynaecologists, (Dijkzigt Hospital, Rotterdam.)

In 1984, at age 18, Renard learned from the Amsterdam Gender Team that she was most likely the youngest person in the world to receive complete contemporary Gender Reassignment Surgery. In the early 1980s, Prof. Louis Gooren put pressure on the Dutch parliament to discuss the option of legal recognition of post-operative transsexuals in the Netherlands. The Netherlands became the first country in the world to legally and fully recognise post-operative transsexuals by accepting a new law in 1985.[3] The Dutch Government granted Renard permission to have her legal gender corrected on her birth certificate. Renard was among the first post-operative Male to Female transsexuals in the world to be legally recognized as a female.

Fearing rejection and discrimination, Renard never volunteered to mention her gender reassignment to friends, colleagues and lovers.

Early career 1982 - 1999

Renard started her career in 1982 working for a local travel agency. Thereafter she was employed as a management assistant with Philips Electronics and Mercedes Benz. As from 1984 she held various functions with the University of Utrecht. In 1987 she moved on by working as the personal assistant of the Vice President of Amdahl Netherlands, the Dutch branch of an American mainframe computer company. In 1989 there were rumours followed by a dispute regarding her alleged romantic relationships with the company’s Junior Sales Manager as well as the Vice President. Renard was paid a year’s salary to leave the organisation. She was then hired by Amdahl’s main competitor IBM. As she felt dissatisfied with IBM’s corporate atmosphere, she found new employment with TNT-XP. Weeks into her employment, the company’s director revealed to Renard that the entire staff had been aware of Renard’s gender change, as one of the company’s employees had known her as a young child, something Renard was unaware of. The director apologised for embarrassing Renard with this information and guaranteed her that none of the employees felt uncomfortable with her special gender identity. The colleague who outed her was reprimanded. Nevertheless, Renard left the company shortly after. In 1990, while working as a temp for ExpoConsult, she was contacted by a business partner of ExpoConsult, the US-based publisher Conway Data Inc. The president asked her to set up a European branch office, launch a European edition of their business magazine Site Selection and represent the organisation at international events. She also functioned as the administrator of IDRC Europe (Industrial Development Research Council). In 1994 Renard left the company in order to concentrate on her academic studies. She attained a Ph.D. in Dutch Literature in 1997. In 1997 Renard started working as an office manager for Lucent Technologies. Five months later, Renard was informed by one of her colleagues that there were rumours within the organisation regarding Renard’s alleged transsexualism and upcoming lay-off. Although Renard was only employed on a temporary basis with a 6-month contract, Renard threatened Lucent to take them to court, accusing them of discrimination. The dispute was settled out of court and Renard was paid a one-year-salary. Renard’s last employment started in January 1999 as an office and relocation manager with Davilex, a fast growing computer game company which was in the process of building their new head office. During her two-month trial period Renard was told by its co-director that he felt “intimidated” by her presence, but the president and founder of the company decided to continue her employment and offered her a permanent contract. Days after Renard successfully completed the company’s relocation project, the president asked her to leave the company. Renard threatened Davilex to take them to court and make a major media hype out of her dismissal. Davilex and Renard's lawyers settled the case out of court and agreed to a generous financial arrangement.

Current career 2000 - present

In the spring of 2000, Renard moved to the hometown of the exiled Dalai Lama in the Indian Himalayas.[4] There she focused on her activities as a writer and pro-Tibet activist. Concerned with the well-being of the Tibetan people and preservation of Tibetan culture, Renard hopes to create more awareness regarding the Tibetan plight by means of the written word.[5] In 2000 and 2001 she published three books in the English in India and Nepal regarding the Tibetan Freedom Struggle (Pantau in Dharamsala, The Fire of Hell, Pantau in India). A Dutch version of her autobiography Pantau in India has also been published in the Netherlands and Belgium in 2003.[6] In 2006, Pantau in India has also been published in the English in the United States. In June 2007, Renard published her follow-up memoir, Pholomolo - No Man No Woman. This book focuses on her experiences with Gender Identity Disorder. After living in the Himalayas for nearly seven years, Renard permanently moved to Thailand in October 2006. Currently, Renard is carrying out research in China and Thailand for a new fiction novel.

Since the publication of her transsexual memoir in 2007, Renard is selectively open about her gender variety, though she considers her transsexualism not to be an important aspect of her being and prefers to speak about her work as a pro-Tibet activist and novelist.

Pantau Foundation

In May 2000, Veronique Renard established the Pantau Foundation to raise funds and help destitute Tibetan refugee children living in exile in India. Together with her Dharamsala-based spokesperson, Jonathan Blair, and New York-based friends Bobby John Parker Jr. and Sebastian Bond, the foundation supports a growing number of Tibetan children.

Personal life

Renard had numerous romantic relationships, some of which she describes in both her memoirs. In 1983, six months prior to her Gender Reassignment Surgery, Renard’s cousin introduced her to some of her friends during a Christmas party. One of them, a 23-year-old office worker started courting Renard. Renard informed him about her physical predisposition and pre-operative status. Though shocked by her revelation he continued dating Renard and he was warmly welcomed into Renard’s family. The relationship ended two years later. Renard met her next lover in March 1986, whom she didn’t inform about her medical history. They organised a surprise engagement during a New Year's party on December 31, 1986. In 1989, Renard ended the relationship. Heartbroken, her ex-fiancé would later commit suicide by hanging himself from a tree. Renard soon started a romantic affair with the Junior Sales Manager of Amdahl Computers, who ended the affair shortly after Renard was laid off by Amdahl. In 1992, during a business trip to the French Riviera, Renard met a young British aristocrat residing in Paris, the son of a billionair. Though deeply in love with each other, the young lord was forced to end his relationship with Renard in order to marry a British lady. In 1994 Renard was introduced to a world-famous British celebrity during his world tour. They dated for nearly two years and were planning an engagement ceremony in Amsterdam and a grand wedding in London. However, Renard’s fiancé ran a background check on her and broke off the engagement only days before their wedding at St. Paul’s Cathedral. In 2001 Renard was briefly engaged to a Japanese widower, a father of a young baby. They lived together in Renard's home in Dharamsala, India. Shortly after Renard informed him about her transsexualism he ended the engagement. As part of her spiritual journey in the Himalayas, Renard practiced celibacy and abstinence between November 2001 and March 2005. During a vacation in Thailand in the winter of 2005 she started dating a Thai physician of Chinese descent. Renard returned to India three months later but finally decided to immigrate permanently to Thailand. The relationship didn't work out but Renard remained in Thailand to carry out research for a new novel. Currently Renard is married to a young Chinese national who works as a professor in Bangkok. Renard lives with her family in Bangkok.[7]

Works

  • Pantau in Dharamsala, by Veronique Renard (2000) English edition published by Everest Press, New Delhi, India
  • The Fire of Hell, by Lobsang Yonten and Veronique Renard (2001), published by Pilgrims Publishers, New Delhi, India
  • Pantau in India, by Veronique Renard (2001), First English edition published by Pilgrims Publishers, New Delhi, India
  • Pantau in India, by Veronique Renard (2003), Dutch edition published by Aspekt Publishers, Soesterberg, The Netherlands
  • Pantau in India, by Veronique Renard (2006), Revised English edition published by IUniverse, Lincoln, New York, Shanghai
  • Pholomolo - No man No Woman (2007), English edition published by IUniverse, Lincoln, New York, Shanghai

References

  1. ^ Happinez Magazine, Meeting the Dalai Lama, by Wija Oberman
  2. ^ Prof. Louis Gooren http://72.14.235.104/search?q=cache:U2Cukx1I9ZsJ:www.asiaandro.com/journal/board/gooren.htm+Free+University+Hospital+Amsterdam+louis+gooren&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=th
  3. ^ Volkskrant http://www.europeants.org/WTPS/Papers/nl_erkent.htm
  4. ^ Kester, Sacha (13 August, 2001), "Een nieuw levensdoel bij de Dalai Lama", de Volkskrant, retrieved 2008-09-13 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  5. ^ Het Nieuwsblad (Belgium) 02 Dec 2003 - Veronique Renard fights for the plight of the Tibetans - by Dirk Moorsel
  6. ^ Top Sante Magazine Feb 04 issue, The writer & The Book. A portrait of Veronique Renard.
  7. ^ Press Release, 18 August 2008 http://www.pantau.blogspot.com/

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