Nauzer Nowrojee (1917-2000) - A shopkeeper, visionary, and humanitarian, Nauzer Nowrojee was responsible for transforming a half forgotten hill station in India, a relic of the British Raj, into the seat of the Tibetan government in exile, a cultural lifeboat floating in the foothills of the Himalayas.

Mr Nowrojee moved to Dharamsala from Karachi in 1938, in order to take over from his father the shop which his great-grandfather had founded in 1860.

In 1959, His Holiness the Dalai Lama and his family, along with an estimated 100,000 other Tibetan refugees, were forced to escape into India during the brutal Chinese repression of the Lhasa uprising. Mr Nowrojee suggested the use of his hill station as a sanctuary.

In 1960, the Tibetan Government in Exile was established in Dharamsala, along with the Tibetan Children's Village and other hospices, and work began to salvage what the Chinese had meant to destroy.

Nauzer Nowrojee died in his sleep at the age of 83, after a walk to greet his old friend the Dalai Lama. He is survived by his wife, a brother, and two sons.