Tashi Gyaltsen was born in 1964 in Yagel Hrongbu Village. He studied Tibetan grammar, history and poetry during his early ages.
In 1986, he joined the Drakar Trezong Monastery where he was ordained as a monk by his teacher, Kelsang Tsultrim Woeser Rinpoche. Over the years, Tashi mastered in all the Buddhist text and successfully completed the five annals of Tibetan Buddhism.
In 1993, he was acclaimed as a candidate for the reincarnation of Kyabje Arol Dorjee Chang.
Tashi was on the editorial team of the monastery’s journal “Great Rays of the Sun and Moon” (Tib translit: nyi dai’ gzi byin). The Chinese authorities deemed the content of the journal to be politically sensitive and on 14 January 2005, “PSB” officials from Tsegorthang County and Tsolho “Tibet Autonomous Region” (“TAP”) arrived in the monastery. Tashi Gyaltsen along with four other monks on the editorial team were arrested and led to the local “PSB” Detention Centre.