Dalai Lama's elder brother, who led several rounds of talks with China, dies at 97

Gyalo Thondup also praised for facilitating U.S. support for Tibetan struggle

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Xi Zhongxun (left), China's former vice premier and father of China's Vice President Xi Jinping, talks with Gyalo Thondup, brother of the Dalai Lama, in Beijing in 1987.   © Reuters

NEW DELHI (AP) -- The elder brother of the Dalai Lama and former chairman of the exiled Tibetan government in India, Gyalo Thondup, who led several rounds of talks with China and worked with foreign governments for the Tibetan cause, has died. He was 97.

Thondup died at his home in Kalimpong, a hill town in the Himalayan foothills of eastern West Bengal state, on Saturday evening, media reports said. No other details were immediately released about his death.

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