Hello! I feel fortunate to be in this time and space, and sharing with you a little of myself. My Buddhist upbringing has taught me to welcome change, and that change is constant and brings with it opportunities and new beginnings. How true! If the People's Liberation Army of China had not invaded and occupied Tibet in 1949, my parents and I would be living in a small hamlet in eastern Tibet herding yaks and working in the field. Now that probably wouldn't be a bad life at all, but it would also mean missing out on some wonderful things that have happened in my life so far.

I grew up in a small town in northern India. My parents are Tibetan refugees who chose to flee Chinese persecution and live a life of freedom in exile. They came with scant possessions, but an abundance of optimism and spirit. The value of hard work, respecting your elders, and making the most of what you have was instilled in me early on.

I came to the U.S. in 1992 and spent the first few years working on human rights issues and advocating for greater support for the Tibetan people in their struggle for cultural preservation and political freedom from China. I visited Tibet for the first time in 1996 and was able to spend time with family members many of whom I'd never met before. We hugged, cried, and talked like as if there was no tomorrow. I promised to visit them again, but that second trip has remained elusive.

Graduate school in Boston was the next big change. I studied international business and Chinese studies with classmates from many different countries. I remember one particular incident involving a group of students from the Chinese Foreign Ministry. One of them as a matter of fact worked with the ministry's Tibet desk. My Chinese friends did not initially appreciate the information I posted in the school library consisting of pictures from my Tibet trip and a brief overview of the Tibetan situation. Within a few hours of my posting, the Chinese students collectively responded by urging the school to pull down what they saw as "propaganda." This exchange in turn attracted a flurry of online responses from the general student body most of which supported my right to post and freely express my views. Though my relations with my Chinese brothers started off on a tense note, we did, however, end up becoming friends by the time we graduated. We spent many hours of discussions where we were able to share our respective perspective and positions on the Tibet issue. We parted with a better understanding of where each one of us was coming from.

After graduation, I worked in a private foundation in New York City. The world of grantmaking, site visits with grantees, and investing philanthropic dollars to aid positive change in the world was a new and exhilarating experience for me. I had the opportunity to work with some wonderful NGOs in South Africa and Central Europe working to strengthen civil society and the nonprofit sector in their countries. I found the work of assisting philanthropic efforts rewarding and I spent the next six years after graduate school working in this sector – first with the private foundation in New York, and another three years with a public foundation in San Francisco.

In 2002, I met Sebastião Salgado, the legendary Brazilian photographer. A year later he asked me to come and work with him and his wife, Lélia Wanick Salgado. The two of them had started an environmental restoration project called Instituto Terra in Brazil. The project's mission is to restore a portion of Brazil's Atlantic forest, raise environmental awareness, and work on small economic development projects benefiting the communities living in that high biodiversity area. The project plants trees, operates a nursery that produces close to a million seedlings a year, and offers a broad range of environmental education courses. I assisted the Instituto with their fundraising and marketing in the U.S., organizational development, and strategic planning. More information is available at: Instituto Terra

It was during my time with Instituto Terra when my path crossed with another visionary and legend: Paul Hawken. Paul invited me to work with him and his organization, The Natural Capital Institute (NCI), after I had wrapped up my Brazil work. It's the best job in the world, and I have the most wonderful and talented people as colleagues and friends. I'm the development director at NCI and also assist with organization development and project planning. More information on our work can be found at: Natural Capital Institute NCI

When not working on NCI stuff, I spend some of my time volunteering and working on two other projects: a capital campaign project to raise funds to build the Tibetan Community Center of Northern California, and a personal project to document the life journey of my parents. The community center project is about empowering Tibetan-Americans of all ages to be successful while promoting the continuity and development of Tibetan social, cultural, and artistic traditions. The project on my parents started off as an oral history, but my hope is that I can one day put it all down in a book and share it with more people. My father's life -which involved being a monk, a freedom fighter, inmate at a Chinese labor camp, escape from the labor camp into India, joining the military in India, and becoming a high government official in the exiled Tibetan government – is a story that needs to be told.

Thank you again for the opportunity to share some information on myself. I think our life is about serving, and that true happiness can be best achieved by working for the happiness of others. Let me end on that note by quoting the Dalai Lama's favorite prayer composed by Shanti Deva, a 11th century Indian Buddhist master.

For as long as space endures,
And for as long as sentient beings remain,
Until then may I, too, abide
To dispel the misery of the world.