Palden Thondup Namgyal OBE (Sikkimese: དཔལ་ལྡན་དོན་དྲུཔ་རྣམ་རྒྱལ; Wylie: dpal-ldan don-grub rnam-rgyal; 23 May 1923 – 29 January 1982) was the 12th and last Chogyal (king) of the Kingdom of Sikkim.

[3][4] From age eight to eleven he studied under his uncle, Rimpoche Lhatsun, in order to be ordained a Buddhist monk; he was subsequently recognised as the reincarnated leader of both Phodong and Rumtek monasteries.

[6] His plans to study science at Cambridge were dashed when his elder brother, the crown prince, a member of the Indian Air Force was killed in a plane crash in 1941.

[18] He was successfully treated by Professor Dr. Amal Kumar Bose, Head of the Department of Anesthesia and Respiratory Care Unit at the SSKM hospital.

[27] Namgyal shaped a "model Asian state" where the literacy rate and per capita income were twice as high as neighbours Nepal, Bhutan and India.

His son from his second marriage, Palden Gyurmed Namgyal, moved to New York aged nine with his mother and sister, being educated at Dalton School.