Dr Yeshi Dhonden honoured with Padma Shri Award

Dr Yeshi Dhonden, former personal physician to the Dalai Lama, has been named as one of 73 recipients of this year’s Padma Shri Award, the fourth-highest civilian award of India.

His was one of 85 Padma Awards announced on the eve of the 69th Republic Day, which celebrates the date on which the Constitution of India came into effect on 26 January 1950.

The Padma Awards are given to recognize works of distinction for exceptional achievements or service in all fields.

The awards are presented by the President of India, usually in March/April every year, when the awardees are presented with a medallion and a certificate signed by the President.

Dr Yeshi Dhonden has served patients from all over the world for more than 50 years. Even while moving into the twilight of his life, at 91, he is still a beacon of hope for countless numbers of patients, including people in advanced stages of cancer, from his clinic in McLeod Ganj, northern India.

In 1960 he was made the chief to lead the newly-founded Men-Tsee-Khang, the Tibetan Medical College, in exile by the Dalai Lama. He led the institute until 1979. He was also the Dalai Lama’s personal physician for almost twenty years beginning in 1960.

He is known for curing chronic diseases, as well as cancer.

Dr Yeshi Dhonden was born in Lhoka, Tibet, in 1927. He comes from a long line of medical practitioners, and began practicing medicine himself when he was 20. He fled to India in 1959 after the Chinese occupation of Tibet.