Death of a Tibetan in Iraq: A Tribute to Tenzin Dengkhim<br />A few days before he left the US to serve in Iraq just over five weeks ago, 19-year old Lance Corporal Tenzin Choeku Dengkhim went to make offerings at a Buddhist shrine. Friends assumed he was seeking protection for the conflict ahead. But he told them later that he had been praying that he would not have to kill any Iraqi people.<br /><br />As far as his family knows, he didn’t. On Saturday 2 April 2005, Lance Cpl. Dengkhim was killed during a firefight in the Al Anbar province in Iraq, where he served as part of the 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion in the 2nd Marine Division based at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. He was the first Tibetan-American to die in the war in Iraq.

Death of a Tibetan in Iraq: A Tribute to Tenzin Dengkhim
A few days before he left the US to serve in Iraq just over five weeks ago, 19-year old Lance Corporal Tenzin Choeku Dengkhim went to make offerings at a Buddhist shrine. Friends assumed he was seeking protection for the conflict ahead. But he told them later that he had been praying that he would not have to kill any Iraqi people.

As far as his family knows, he didn’t. On Saturday 2 April 2005, Lance Cpl. Dengkhim was killed during a firefight in the Al Anbar province in Iraq, where he served as part of the 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion in the 2nd Marine Division based at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. He was the first Tibetan-American to die in the war in Iraq.