Tenzin Mingyur Paldron | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1984 New Delhi, India |
| Academic background | |
| Education | Evergreen State College (BA) University of California, Berkeley (PhD) |
| Thesis | Tibet, China, and the United States: Self-immolation and the limits of understanding (2021) |
Tenzin Mingyur Paldron (Tibetan : བསྟན་འཛིན་མི་འགྱུར་དཔལ་སྒྲོན, Wylie : bstan 'dzin mi 'gyur dpal sgron; born 1984), also known as Doc Tenzin, is a Tibetan artist, focused on issues of LGBTQ persons and sexual violence within the Tibetan diaspora.
Tenzin Mingyur Paldron was born as a refugee in New Delhi, India, in 1984. [1]
He attended Seattle Central Community College before receiving his Bachelor of Arts from Evergreen State College, and his Doctor of Philosophy in rhetoric from UC Berkeley in the United States. [1]
In 2011, Paldron co-authored a bill proposed by the Berkeley City Council recognizing self-immolation protests by Tibetans in China as a response to Chinese Government oppression. [2] [3]
Paldron's work is focused on issues of LGBTQ persons and sexual violence within the Tibetan diaspora. [4] [5]
He often explores fluidity of gender, including in a 2024 video commission titled "Power, Masculinity and Mindfulness" and displayed in the "Reimagine: Himalayan Art Now" exhibit at the Rubin Museum of Art. [6] [7] [8]
In July 2025, Paldron's work was featured in the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (BACC) exhibit "Constellation of Complicity: Visualising the Global Machinery of Authoritarian Solidarity", including a video of Tibetans carrying Palestinian flags, and a film titled "Listen to Indigenous People". [9] Following a visit to the exhibit by officials from the Chinese Embassy in Bangkok and Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, the Embassy officials demanded the removal of Paldron's work from the exhibit. [10] [11] The BACC complied, leading to condemnation by the human rights and art communities, including Maya Wang, associate China director at Human Rights Watch. [12] [13] [14]