Lhamo Tsering was born in 1924 in the village of Sina Nagatsang near Kumbum Monastery in Amdo, which was close by Taktser, the Dalai Lama’s birthplace. He was the trusted link-man between the Tibetan resistance fighters and the CIA for nearly 20 years.

When the resistance fighters were eventually abandoned by the CIA, he was arrested and imprisoned in Nepal for eight years.

He was sent off to a training camp in Virginia and later, to Camp Hale in the Rocky Mountains in Colorado .