Jacques Kuhn’s Commitment to exiled Tibetans

Last Updated on May 7, 2024 by pg@petergamma.org

After attending a charity event in the wake of the Tibetan uprising of 1959, the Kuhns took in a group of Tibetan refugees in Rikon. The first 22 refugees arrived in the Zurich Oberland in October 1964 and soon began working in the pan factory.

During the boom at the time, they covered the need for workers and were accommodated in newly built apartments. Here too, Jacques Kuhn combined economic pragmatism with philanthropy.[2]

Philanthropy refers to people-friendly thinking and behavior. A love that encompasses all of humanity, “general human love,” is sometimes cited as a motif.

In order to compensate for the loss of their homeland and to make it easier to get used to the western environment, Jacques and Henri Kuhn turned to the 14th Dalai Lama. In 1967 he sent five Buddhist monks from India to Rikon, where the Tibetan Monastic Institute was opened in 1968 on building land belonging to the Kuhn family.[2]

During his time as managing director of Kuhn Rikon, Jacques Kuhn was vice president of the board of trustees, which was chaired by his sister-in-law Mathilde Kuhn-Ziegler. From 1998 he was president of the foundation for seven years, then honorary president until his death.

The Dalai Lama visited the Tibet Institute several times while traveling to Switzerland,[1] where he thanked Kuhn, who was himself a Reformed Christian, for his commitment. He called him “Pola” (grandfather).[4]

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Kuhn

But all the same, this question remains unanswered about Gesche Rinpoche Jampa Lodro Dahortsang:

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