Phunchog Rai

rdf:langString Phunchog Rai

rdf:langString Phunchog Rai (born 1944) is an Indian politician from Himachal Pradesh, and a member of the Indian National Congress Party. He hails from village Lari in the Spiti valley. He matriculated from the Government High School in Manali in 1965, and did graduation from Punjab University at Chandigarh. Rai served as an elected representative in the Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly from the Lahaul and Spiti assembly constituency from 1990 to 1998. In 1990, he was elected as an MLA, during the second tenure of Shanta Kumar as the Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh (1990-1992). Rai was re-elected to the Legislative Assembly in 1993, this time under the second tenure of Virbhadra Singh as Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh (1993-1998). In this period, he served as a cabinet minister. As minister, Rai held two portfolios, those of Tribal Affairs and Health and Family Planning. Rai has been on the Expert Advisory Committee for the development of Buddhist/Tibetan culture and art in the Ministry of Culture, Government of India. In 1996, he was present as a minister at the 1,000th anniversary of the Tabo monastery in Spiti, whereat the 14th Dalai Lama also delivered Kalachakra teachings and initiations. The 'Presidential Address' Rai delivered at a seminar on petroglyphs in the Spiti valley has been published in the book Rediscovering Spiti: a Historical and Archaeological Study (2017).