Ashi jetsun pema siblings
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Queen Jetsun Pema
| Jetsun Pema | |
|---|---|
| Reign | 2011 — Present |
| Coronation | 13 October 2011 |
| Born | (1990-06-04) June 4, 1990 (age 34) |
| Spouse | Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck (m. 2011) |
| Issue | Prince Jigme Namgyal Wangchuck Prince Jigme Ugyen Wangchuck Princess Sonam Yangden Wangchuck |
| House | Wangchuck |
| Father | Dondrup Gyaltshen |
| Religion | Buddhism |
Jetsun Pema (Dzongkha: རྗེ་བཙུན་པདྨ་; Wylie: rje btsun padma; born 4 June 1990) is the Queen (Druk Gyaltsuen, which literally means “Dragon Queen”) of Bhutan, as the wife of King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck.
Early life
[change | change source]Jetsun Pema was born at Jigme Dorji Wangchuck National Referral Hospital in Thimphu on 4 June 1990. Her father, Dhondup Gyaltshen, is the grandson of two Trashigang Dzongpons, Thinley Topgay and Ugyen Tshering (governors of Trashigang). Her mother, Aum Sonam Choki, comes from the family of Bumthang Pangtey, one of Bhutan's oldest noble families. Sonam Choki's father was a half-brother of two queens consort of Bhutan, Phuntsho Choden (great-grandmother of
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Gelek cries and wants to turn back, but it is impossible. His father has paid a man who is leading a group of refugees over the Himalayas. The adults look at his black speckled feet and say that he has frostbite. He could lose his feet. That night they take turns carrying Gelek on their backs, but he must walk the rest of the way himself. It takes four weeks to reach the Nepalese border. A few days later Gelek wakes in a hospital bed. His toes are gone and his feet are wrapped in bandages.
Gelek after arriving at the Tibetan refugee center in McCleod Ganj in India. Soon, he will go to live in one of the Tibetan Children’s Villages run by Ama Jetsun Pema la.
Every year hundreds of refugee children risk their lives to escape from Tibet. Many are orphans. Others are sent by their parents to escape the oppression and poverty in Chinese-controlled Tibet. In Jetsun Pema’s Tibetan children’s villages they get a new home and the chance to go to school. She has fought for Tibetan refugee children for decades and the children call her ama la, which means respected mother in Tibetan.Jets
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Tens of thousands of refugee children have been helped through TCV. Many are orphans. Others are sent by their parents to escape the oppression and poverty in Chinese-controlled Tibet. In Jetsun Pema’s Tibetan children’s villages they get a new home and the chance to go to school. She has fought for Tibetan refugee children for more than 50 years and the children call her ama la, which means respected mother in Tibetan.
Jetsun Pema was born in 1940 in Tibet. At that time her big brother, Tenzin Gyatso, had already been named the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s highest spiritual leader. When she was 9, she was sent to a boarding school in India. A few years later Tibet was invaded by China. After a failed uprising in 1959, the Dalai Lama fled with his family to India. "I was so glad that they were alive, that nothing else mattered", remembers Pema. At the same time, she was sad and angry. "We had lost our land. Now we were refugees".
Jetsun Pema’s tireless work has saved lives and given tens of thousands of Tibetan refugee children a home, a family, education, and hope for the futur
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