Tubten Jigme Norbu

• Background — #FFD068 • Name — Thubten Jigme Norbu • Born — 16 August 1922 • Birthplace — Taktser, Tibet • Died — 5 September 2008 • Place of death — Bloomington, Indiana, U.S. • Religion — Tibetan Buddhism • Illustration — Thubten Jigme Norbu on the cover of his 1961 book Tibet is My Country: Autobiography of Thubten Jigme Norbu, Brother of the Dalai Lama as told to Heinrich Harrer (translation from German by Edward Fitzgerald)

Thubten Jigme Norbu was born in 1922 in the small, mountain village of Taktser in the Amdo County of Eastern Tibet.

• Illustration — Stupa on the grounds of Tibetan Mongolian Buddhist Cultural Center, Bloomington, Indiana. The Dalai Lama performed the initiation here in 1999, "to promote world peace." In 1995, Norbu cofounded the International Tibet Independence Movement (ITIM). He led three walks for Tibet's independence, starting in 1995 with a week-long walk 80 mi from Bloomington, Indiana to Indianapolis, Indiana. In 1996 he led a 300 mi, 45-day walk from the PRC embassy in Washington, DC to the Headquarters of the United Nations in New York City. The following year, joined by Dadon with her three-year-old son, he led a 600 mi walk from Toronto to New York City, beginning on March 10 (Tibetan Uprising Day) and ending June 14 (Flag Day).

• Illustration — On the grounds of Tibetan Mongolian Buddhist Cultural Center, Bloomington, Indiana Norbu lived at the Tibetan-Mongolian Buddhist Cultural Center with his wife Kunyang. They have three sons, Lhundrup, Kunga and Jigme Norbu, all born in New York. Norbu moved to Bloomington in 1965 to teach college students as a professor of Tibetan Studies at Indiana University Bloomington where he taught until retirement from IUB in 1987. In late 2002, Norbu suffered a series of strokes and became an invalid. Norbu died at the age of 86 on September 5, 2008, at his home in Indiana in the United States having been ill for several years. His body was cremated in a traditional Buddhist ceremony. Norbu's wife Kunyang briefly ran a Tibetan restaurant in Bloomington. His youngest son, Jigme, died at the age of 45 on February 14, 2011, while carrying on his father's work. He was hit by a car in Florida during a walk to promote Tibetan independence and raise awareness of Tibet.