Choegyal Dawa was born in Drago (Luhuo), in Tibet's Kham. In 2008, at just eight years old, he was caught in Shigatse while trying to leave Tibet and held in a local prison for six months. He went on to study Tibetan language and culture at a primary school founded by a khenpo, entered Jigme Gyaltsen School for high school in 2017, and enrolled at Northwest Minzu University in 2020 to study Tibetan language and literature.

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Growing up, he felt the limits on free expression firsthand and watched the space for mother-tongue education shrink: his primary school was later taken over by the state, and his secondary school was shut down. He worries that younger Tibetans are losing the chance to study their own language, history, and culture, and can no longer understand the stories their elders tell. For him, losing the language means losing the bond between generations.

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In 2026, he fled through Nepal to India and reached Dharamshala. At the Tibetan reception center in Kathmandu, he broke down in tears when he saw a portrait of the Dalai Lama openly displayed, feeling he had finally reached a place of safety and freedom. He later spoke to CNN under his real name to share the changes he had witnessed in Tibet. He is now preparing to begin a master’s program in Tibetan history at Sarah College.

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As a member of Chinese Youth Stand for Tibet, he hopes to draw on his experience and studies to tell Chinese-speaking audiences about Tibet’s history and present, so that more people can hear Tibetans in their own voices. Inspired by the devotion to his people and homeland in the poetry of Gendün Chöphel, he strives to turn that care into learning, documenting, and speaking out, contributing what he can to his people.

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He said, I have always remembered the Gendun Chopel's words: 

རང་སྡེ་རིགས་ལ་ཞེན་པ་དཀར་པོའི་མདངས།། 
རང་བྱུང་སྙིང་གི་དབུས་ན་གནས་པ་འདིས།། 
རང་ཡུལ་ཁ་བ་ཅན་གྱི་རྗེ་འབུངས་ལ།། 
རང་གི་ནུས་པས་སྲི་ཞུ་ཅུང་ཟད་སྒྲུབ། །

The white color of love for one's own race
This is the center of the heart of nature.
The snow-capped king of his homeland
Do a little service in your own way. .