A Brief Biography of Kungam A young Tibetan writer and activist, Journalist Kungam, was born in Amdo Ngaba in Tibet.In 1998, his father Gerik wasarrested and imprisoned for over a month by Chinese government for allegedlydistributing pro-Tibet slogan posters. After that his father had undergonesuccessive imprisonments and tortures-over four months in 2008 for allegedlysmuggling out information about the Tibetan Peaceful Uprising in Tibet and ayear and more in 2011 for supposedly sending out information of theself-immolation of Ven. Phuntsok of Kirti Monastery. His mother Dhonkho andsister Methok were also jailed and cruelly beaten for more than two weeks. From 1992, he studied Buddhistphilosophy at Kirti Monastery in Ngaba.In 1998, he strongly protested whenChinese government was promoting the campaign of “Patriotic Education” inTibet. After coming to exile in India in2000, he joined the Kirti Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies in Dharamsala andstudied Tibetan literature, history, grammar, religious history, fields ofscience and Buddhist philosophy for nine consecutive years until 2009 andreceived many complimentary prizes from the institute for his excellentperformances in the examinations and in the easy writing competitions. In 2007, after founding Donme (Lamp)Editorial Centre, he had edited and published three Donme book seriescomprising article collection of more than sixty Tibetan writers living inexile and in Tibet, and distributed them in many places. In 2008, during the wake of ‘Tibetanpeople’s Great Peaceful Uprising’ in Tibet against the Chinese government ruleand policies, he collected information about the uprising in Tibet as a memberof the Kirti monastery’s Emergency Coordination Group. In addition, hepersonally gathered more than forty true shocking photos of the peacefulTibetan protesters being massacred by the Chinese policemen in the uprising inthe Ngaba region, which greatly helped to reveal the real situation of Tibetthrough the world’s major news channels. Again in 2009, he tookresponsibility of an editor of the book titled “The Knowledge and Action”.In 2010, he worked as the journalistand the chief editor of the monthly Tibetan newspaper called 'Kalon Tripa'(literally prime minister), which was published before the election of theincumbent Prime Minister of CTA, Dr Lobsang Sangay. In 2011, he was elected to theposition of director of Ngaba Trust for Universal Education and of vicepresident of Regional National Democratic Party of Tibet in Dharamsala, whichhas more than two hundred and sixty members. In 2012, he was elected the externalcoordinator of Regional Amdo Association in Dharamsala.From 2002 to date, he has writtenand contributed over sixty compositions of analytical articles, opinions,poems, interviews, news and lyrics to different magazines, websites andnewspapers both inside and outside Tibet. He is currently a member ofex-political prisoners of Gu Chu Sum Movement of Tibet (Ex-political prisoners’association) in Dharamsala and is also among the list of ex-political prisonersofficially recognized by the Department of Finance of CTA. Furthermore, he isthe head of the Donme (lamp) Editorial Committee, a research assistance of theEnglish Law Professor Dr. Tamara Relis’s research project on Tibet issue, andis conducting professional research on Tibetan Medias.[edit]
