Dalai Lama Hires Seattle Woman

A Seattle woman has been appointed by the Dalai Lama to represent Tibetan interests at the Tibetan government in exile in Paris.

Kunzang Diki Yuthok, 38, founder of the Seattle-based Tibetan Rights Campaign, will represent the Dalai Lama and his exiled government at the European Union and European Parliament, as well as before the governments of France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Spain, Portugal and Greece. She will assume the post Feb. 15.

Last summer Yuthok was instrumental in launching the Tibet Online Resource Gathering, which links 225 Tibet support groups around the world. Her older sister will succeed her as director of the online project.

Yuthok currently serves on the boards of the International Campaign for Tibet and the Church Council of Greater Seattle.

The Paris-based Tibet Bureau is one of 11 international offices representing the Dalai Lama - the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists - and the exiled government of Tibet.

After China occupied Tibet in 1950, many of the political and religious leaders went into exile.

There are about 140,000 Tibetans in exile around the world.

Yuthok, who was born in India and has never been to Tibet, arrived in Seattle in 1973. Her father was the Dalai Lama’s first English translator.