Palden Thondup Namgyal
| Palden Thondup Namgyal | |
|---|---|
| The 12th Chogyal | |
 |
|
| Chogyal of Sikkim | |
| Reign | 2 December 1963 – 10 April 1975 |
| Coronation | 4 April 1965 |
| Predecessor | Tashi Namgyal |
| Successor | Monarchy abolished |
| Born |
23 May 1923 Gangtok, Sikkim |
| Died | 29 January 1982 (aged 58) Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center New York City, United States |
| Spouse |
Samyo Kushoe Sangideki (1950–1957) Hope Cooke (1963–1980) |
| Issue | Prince Tenzing Kunzang Jigme Namgyal Prince Tobgyal Wangchuk Tenzing Namgyal Princess Yangchen Dolma Namgyal Prince Palden Gyurmed Namgyal Princess Hope Leezum Namgyal Tobden A son Omo |
| House | Namgyal |
| Father | Tashi Namgyal |
| Mother | Kunzang Dechen |
| Religion | Buddhism |
Palden Thondup Namgyal (23 May 1923 – 29 January 1982) was the 12th and last Chogyal (king) of the Kingdom of Sikkim.
Namgyal was born on 23 May 1923 at the Royal Palace, Park Ridge, Gangtok.
At six, he became a student at St. Joseph's Convent in Kalimpong, but had to terminate his studies due to attacks of malaria. From age eight to eleven he studied under his uncle, Rimpoche Lhatsun, in order to be ordained a Buddhist monk; he was subsequently recognised as the reincarnated leader of both Phodong and Rumtek monasteries. He later continued his studies at Saint Joseph's College in Darjeeling and finally graduated from Bishop Cotton School in Shimla, in 1941. His plans to study science at Cambridge were dashed when his elder brother, the crown prince, a member of the Royal Air Force was killed in a plane crash in 1941.
Namgyal served as adviser for internal affairs for his father, Sir Tashi Namgyal, the 11th Chogyal, and led the negotiating team which established Sikkim's relationship to India after independence in 1949. He married Samyo Kushoe Sangideki in 1950, a daughter of an important Tibetan family of Lhasa, and together they had two sons and a daughter. Samyo Kushoe Sangideki died in 1957.
In 1963, Namgyal married Hope Cooke, a twenty-two-year-old socialite from New York City, USA; she was a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College in Yonkers in the state of New York. The marriage brought worldwide media attention to Sikkim. The couple, who had two children, divorced in 1980.
Shortly after their marriage, his father died and Namgyal was crowned the new Chogyal on an astrologically favourable date in 1965. In 1975, as the result of a referendum, Sikkim became a state of India and the monarchy abolished. He opposed the referendum and the annexation to India.
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