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Who is Gitanjali J Angmo? Meet Sonam Wangchuk’s wife and co-founder of HIAL
Gitanjali J Angmo is a social entrepreneur and educationist who is married to Sonam Wangchuk.
As activist Sonam Wangchuk's hunger strike entered its 19th day on Thursday, his wife, Gitanjali J Angmo, spoke in support of his decision to join the ongoing protest. Speaking to The Hindu, Angmo said that Wangchuk’s decision to join the protest – started by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) — was “organic”, and that he did not want “nefarious” elements to sabotage the movement.
Sonam Wangchuk has been on a hunger strike since June 28, demanding the resignation of Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan over alleged irregularities in the examination system and the NEET-UG paper leak in May this year.
His protest has put the spotlight on his professional and personal life, including his wife Gitanjali J Angmo.
Who is Gitanjali J Angmo?
Gitanjali J Angmo is a social entrepreneur and educationist who is married to Sonam Wangchuk.
Born in Balasore, Odisha to a Punjabi family, Angmo has a bachelor’s degree in physics from Fakir Mohan University.
She also holds an MBA from Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar.
According to a report in The New Indian Express, Gitanjali Angmo worked in the corporate sector for six years after completing her MBA.
She then went on to establish a publishing house called Helios Books, AUM Hospitals and AUM Trust.
In 2017, Gitanjali co-founded Himalayan Institute of Alternatives (HIAL) in Ladakh with her husband Sonam Wangchuk. The institute focuses on solving real-world problems faced by mountain communities rather than rote learning.
Besides her professional credentials, Angmo is a Black Belt in karate and has won the World championship in 2009 in USA.
She describes herself as a practicing Hindu. On her website, her bio says she is “a life-long student of Sri Aurobindo’s philosophy, Vedas and the Upanishads.”
How Sonam Wangchuk met Gitanjali J Angmo
In a 2025 interview with Brut, Angmo had revealed that she met Wangchuk at an education conference. The two connected instantly.
“It was so interesting to see that we were finishing each other's sentences. There was so much similarity in the way we wanted to work in the field of education and life in general,” she said.
The social entrepreneur said that she had always aspired to “live for a cause larger than herself”. When she met Sonam Wangchuk, it was “like finding a kindred soul”.
Besides education and social reform, the couple shares a love for travel.
(Also read: Govt's first reaction to Sonam Wangchuk's hunger strike: ‘Can give medical assistance based on doctor's report')
