ལྕགས་རི་ཤར་ཐུབ་བསྟན་

Thupten Chakrishar

I am a Tibetan social entrepreneur and software developer. I grew up in exile, learned to code in India, studied film in New York, and have spent the years since helping others and building things that try to keep a culture legible to the people inheriting it.

This is where I share my views, my stories, and the projects.

ང་ནི་བོད་རིགས་ཀྱི་སྤྱི་ཚོགས་ཞབས་ཞུའི་ལས་གཞི་གསར་གཏོད་པ་ཞིག་དང་། མཉེན་ཆས་གསར་སྤེལ་བ་ཞིག་ཡིན། བཙན་བྱོལ་ལ་འཚར་ལོངས་བྱུང་། རྒྱ་གར་དུ་བརྡ་ཡིག་(code)འབྲི་སྟངས་སྦྱངས། ནེའུ་ཡོག་ཏུ་གློག་བརྙན་རིག་པར་སློབ་སྦྱོང་བྱས། དེ་ནས་བཟུང་གི་ལོ་ངོ་རྣམས་ནི། གཞན་ལ་རོགས་རམ་བྱེད་པ་དང་། རིག་གཞུང་ཞིག་དེའི་ཤུལ་འཛིན་མི་རབས་ལ་ངོ་འཕྲོད་ཅིང་གོ་ཐུབ་པར་གནས་པའི་ཆེད་དུ་ཡོ་བྱད་བཟོ་སྐྲུན་བྱེད་པའི་ཁྲོད་དུ་བསྐྱལ་ཡོད།

འདི་ནི་ངའི་བསམ་ཚུལ་དང་། ངའི་གཏམ་རྒྱུད། ལས་གཞི་རྣམས་མཉམ་སྤྱོད་བྱེད་སའི་གནས་དེ་ཡིན།

རྩོམ་ཡིག

Writing

All 21 →

01 The Invisible Erasure: How Tibetan Culture is Disappearing from AI's Reality While a billion people now rely on AI for information, Tibetan language and culture are virtually absent from these systems—and Chinese AI models embedding Beijing's narratives are filling the void at unprecedented speed. February 2026 02 Announcing Vajrayana Pilgrimage Sites: A Digital Guide to Sacred Né A new project documenting 14 power places where Padmasambhava, Yeshe Tsogyal, and the Mahasiddhas achieved realization—sites where tantric accomplishment left permanent imprints in rock, water, and space. January 2026 03 The Mountains, the Sun, and the River Why do millions of Indian and Tibetan children in India draw the same pastoral scene—mountains, an S-shaped river, a hut with trees and line drawing birds? A reflection on how education systems teach reproduction over observation, and what this reveals about the invisible templates shaping our thoughts, beliefs, and sense of self. December 2025 04 Introducing LayerType: Free YouTube Thumbnails with the Text-Behind Effect A free, browser-based thumbnail maker that puts pro-level design tools in everyone's hands—including support for Tibetan fonts. December 2025 05 Introducing Lungta Radio A free streaming platform dedicated to preserving and promoting Tibetan music—carrying our musical heritage on the digital wind. December 2025 06 Sargam as a Vocal Diagnostic Tool: An Accidental Discovery How cleaning my garage led me to rediscover ancient wisdom about the voice—using the Indian classical scale to diagnose vocal issues. December 2025

ལས་གཞི།

Projects

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Himalayan Elders Project Co-founded 2012. The largest organization in North America serving seniors from the Himalayan diaspora. Genla A free, adaptive learning platform for Tibetan children growing up in diaspora. Tibetan Calendar A lunisolar tradition rooted in the Kālacakra Tantra, made legible on the web. Dramnyen Notation A notation editor for the Tibetan lute, so the music can be written down.

Earlier work, smaller experiments, and tools live in the Lab.