Monpa & Tawang Belt · Eastern Himalaya & Brahmaputra Belt
People
| Name | Years | Field | Known for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Merak Lama Lodre Gyatso | Seventeenth century | Monastic founder | Founded Tawang Monastery in 1680–81 at the behest of the fifth Dalai Lama, establishing the Gelugpa institution around which the belt's religious, educational and, historically, administrative life was organised. |
| Tsangyang Gyatso | 1683–1706 | Sixth Dalai Lama, poet | Born at Urgelling near Tawang. His short love poems entered oral circulation across the Tibetan-speaking world and are still sung; they are the most widely known body of writing associated with anywhere in this belt. |
| Thangtong Gyalpo | 1385–1464 | Bridge-builder, engineer, teacher | The Tibetan iron-chain bridge builder to whom the Chakzam near Tawang is traditionally attributed. The documentary basis for the attribution is thin, but the story is part of how the belt accounts for its own crossings. |
| The twelfth Tsona Gontse Rinpoche | Twentieth century | Monastic founder | Established Gontse Gaden Rabgyel Ling at Bomdila in 1965, giving the middle valleys a major Gelugpa monastery of their own rather than a dependency of Tawang. |
| Yeshe Dorjee Thongchi | b. 1952 | Writer | Born at Jigaon in West Kameng, of the Sherdukpen community, and writing in Assamese. Won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 2005 for the novel Mauna Onth Mukhar Hriday and was awarded the Padma Shri in 2020 — the writer through whom this belt's material entered Assamese literature. |
| Sange Dorjee Thongdok | Contemporary | Filmmaker | Directed Crossing Bridges in 2013, shot in West Kameng and made in Sherdukpen — the first feature film in the language. It won the National Film Award in the Sherdukpen category. |
People from Monpa & Tawang Belt who shaped its history, arts, science, sport and public life. (6)