Richard Gere Urges Compassion Across Borders After Devastating Nepal-Tibet Flash Floods

Richard Gere has posted a message of support to the people of Nepal and Tibet after flash floods and landslides along their border left more than a thousand people dead or missing. "My heart is with the people of Nepal and Tibet today," the actor wrote in a reflection published on the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT) website, dated August 26, 2026 (FPMT).

Gere's message arrived roughly 24 hours after a massive glacial collapse triggered the disaster. Footage of the flood showed a wall of water, debris and ice crashing into a border crossing in Gyirong and sweeping down the valley, destroying everything in its path, according to Deadline.

The human toll remains staggering and, by some measures, still rising. Reuters reported on August 26 that a flash flood at Trishuli in Nepal killed at least nine people and left hundreds of tourists missing. Another Reuters report said 157 bodies had been recovered along the Nepal-Tibet border, with hundreds still unaccounted for. Al Jazeera put the death toll at least 165. NPR reported that mudslides in Tibet caused by the glacial collapse left three dead and 558 missing, while Nepalese police reported at least 162 people missing on their side of the border.

More than 1,000 people were reported missing in total, with at least half believed to be tourists from countries including the United States, Australia, Britain, France and Canada, according to Deadline.

Gere's connection to the region runs deep. He first travelled to Nepal in 1978 with Brazilian painter Sylvia Martins. There he met Tibetan monks and Lamas, an encounter that led to his conversion to Tibetan Buddhism in the early 1980s. He met the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, in India around the same time. Since then, Gere has spent more than four decades advocating for the human rights of Tibetan people and the preservation of their culture (Deadline).

In his message, Gere wrote: "There are places in this world that, once they touch your heart, never really leave you. The Himalayas — their people, their spirituality, their extraordinary beauty — have been part of my life and my heart for many years."

He described the scope of the destruction in plain terms. "Seeing the devastation caused by these floods, from Nepal to Gyirong and the Shigatse region of Tibet, is heartbreaking," he wrote. "Search and rescue efforts are only just beginning, and these first hours are filled with uncertainty, but also with hope. Today there are no borders in our compassion" (Deadline).

Gere also called on Tibetans to honour the legacy of activist Lobga Rangzen by carrying forward the message he urged the world never to forget (SaveTibet on X).

For an actor whose public life has been inseparable from his Buddhist faith and his advocacy for Tibet, the message carries the weight of a relationship that began nearly half a century ago. The disaster he is responding to has stretched across an international border, and the search for the missing continues.