Banff Mountain Book Festival 2006

Friday, November 3, 9:00 – 10:10 a.m.

Max Bell Auditorium

Losang Rabgey

After her parents fled Tibet in 1959, Losang Rabgey was born in a Tibetan refugee settlement in northern India. Her family emigrated to Canada when she was a child, and by the late 1970s, the family founded the Potala Tibetan Performance Arts Group.

Rabgey is a co-founder of Machik along with her sister Tashi Rabgey, and is executive director of the a non-profit organization with a mission to strengthen and revitalize rural communities on the Tibetan plateau. Through Machik, Rabgey coordinates collaborative efforts to establish sustainable geotourism in the region. After years of balancing doctoral studies with advocacy work, Rabgey has also co-founded an award-winning primary school in her father’s village in eastern Tibet and has established an innovative Tibetan cultural centre and library in the northeastern region of Amdo.

Rabgey was selected as one of National Geographic’s Emerging Explorers for 2006. Her passion to bring practical improvements to rural Tibetan villages has resulted in schools, libraries, community centres, sustainable tourism, new opportunities for women, and stronger communities.

Photos courtesy Losang and Tashi Rabgey