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14 figures

Rabindranath Tagore

1861 – 1941

First non-European Nobel laureate; wrote two nations' anthems.

India·Literature · Philosophy · PeaceNobelFull profile

Hakim Ajmal Khan

1868 – 1927

Physician of Unani medicine who built its modern colleges and led the Indian National Congress.

India·Integrative Medicine · Education

Mahatma Gandhi

1869 – 1948

Turned nonviolent resistance into a working political technology.

India·Peace · Philosophy · Literature

P. S. Varier

1869 – 1944

Founded Arya Vaidya Sala at Kottakkal and industrialised classical Ayurvedic pharmacy.

India·Ayurveda · Education

Shiv Sharma

1906 – 1980

Led the campaign that won Ayurveda statutory recognition in independent India.

India·Ayurveda · Education

Deng Tietao

1916 – 2019

Master physician of Guangzhou whose spleen-stomach theory shaped modern TCM curricula.

China·Traditional Chinese Medicine · Education

B. K. S. Iyengar

1918 – 2014

Turned yoga into a precise therapeutic method taught in clinics and studios worldwide.

India·Integrative Medicine · Education

Muhammad Yunus

b. 1940

Lent $27 of his own money and started a global industry for the poor.

Bangladesh·Economics · Business · PeaceNobelFull profile

Vasant Lad

b. 1943

Founded the Ayurvedic Institute in New Mexico and trained the first Western practitioners.

India·Ayurveda · Education

Aung San Suu Kyi

b. 1945

Fifteen years under house arrest; later a contested civilian leader.

Myanmar·PeaceNobel

Vandana Shiva

b. 1952

Philosopher of seed sovereignty and critic of industrial agriculture.

India·Philosophy · Environment · Agriculture

Kailash Satyarthi

b. 1954

Freed tens of thousands of children from bonded labour.

India·PeaceNobel

Tawakkol Karman

b. 1979

Journalist who led Yemen's 2011 uprising.

Yemen·PeaceNobel

Malala Yousafzai

b. 1997

Shot for going to school; now the youngest Nobel laureate in history.

Pakistan·Peace · LiteratureNobel