Little Tibet in Toronto
Parkdale remains a mixture of low-income, immigrant and vulnerable community members facing housing insecurity and displacement pressures. Alongside one of the largest Indigenous populations in Toronto, Tibetans have made Parkdale their home for generations. After escaping their Chinese-occupied homeland, displaced Tibetans have often landed first in Nepal, then India, before finally finding a permanent community here in Toronto.
Today, Ontario is home to an estimated 10,000 Tibetans with more than 8,000 living in Toronto, mostly in Parkdale, making the neighbourhood one of the largest Tibetan communities outside of Asia. Little Tibet exists as a Tibetan social and cultural hub centred around activities at the Tibetan Canadian Cultural Centre.
Around Queen and Jameson, you’ll find momo and thenthuk restaurants, Buddhist religious centres, celebrations of traditional Gorshey dance and informal gathering spaces. The Milky Way Garden, a 7000 sq ft vacant property in the heart of Parkdale, has been cared for mostly by Tibetan elder community members passing on ancient food traditions.
The Chinese occupation and ethnic cleansing of Tibet
Despite the joyousness often seen through the lens of an outsider observing Tibetan Canadians celebrating and thriving in Parkdale, there is a worsening situation happening in their homeland of Tibet. Chinese rule in Tibet has been characterized by brutal repression and ethnic cleansing, and yet the rest of the world takes little interest, according to Youngdoung Tenzin, the community leader for the Canadian Tibetan Association of Ontario (CTAO).
Tenzin was born in Tibet to a nomadic family. In 1999, at 12 years old he escaped to Nepal by crossing the Himalayan mountains. He travelled at night during wintertime at great peril to avoid arrest by the Chinese police. His journey took almost two months on foot to finally reach the Tibetan Fugitive Reception Centre, an organization that gives shelter and Tibetan education to those fleeing oppression.
“The reason I escaped was mainly the Chinese occupation of Tibet. There are so many restrictions in Tibet and we are not allowed to learn the Tibetan language, culture or traditions,” Tenzin said. “Tibetans are not issued passports and are not allowed to travel anywhere in the world. Even within Tibet, they need permission from the local Chinese authority to go from one city to the next.”
After moving to India to attend a Tibetan high school, Tenzin earned a Master’s degree in Chemistry in Bangalore then went on to further studies in Brandenburg, Germany before permanently settling in Toronto to join CTAO in their mission campaigning for the right to Tibetan freedom inside Tibet.
“There’s a huge Tibetan community here in Toronto, along with a lot of immigrants from around the world. I’ve been in many parts of the world, but when I came to Toronto I didn’t feel like an outsider,” Tenzin said.
Sunny Sonam and Nyima Yangtso, president and vice president, respectively, of the Regional Tibetan Youth Congress of Toronto (RTYCTO) have similar stories of coming to Canada. As the leaders of the local NGO organization, Sonam said they are officially recognized by the Tibetan exile government but considered a terrorist group by the Chinese government. “Our weapon is the truth. We use our voices and our pen. These are the only weapons we use,” Sonam said.
Tibetan National Uprising Day and the history of Tibet
on March 10, of this year, Tibetan community leaders joined thousands of local Tibetans in a nonviolent resistance movement to commemorate the 63rd anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan National Uprising against China’s illegal occupation of Tibet. The protest was organized in combination with the Canadian Tibetan Association of Ontario (CTAO), the Regional Tibetan Youth Congress of Toronto (RTYCTO), the Tibetan Women’s Association of Ontario, Dhokham Chushigangdruk Canada and Students for a Free Tibet Canada.
National Uprising Day memorializes events that took place at Potala Palace in Tibet’s capital city Lhasa on March 10, 1959, where thousands of Tibetans protested against human rights only to be massacred in the streets, imprisoned or deported. March 12, 1959, also marks Women’s Uprising Day when thousands of Tibetan women took to the streets of Lhasa in support of Tibetan Independence. Many of the participants in these uprisings were later imprisoned or executed for their actions.
Five days later Tibet’s religious leader, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, escaped from the pursuing Chinese government to seek political asylum in India. He was followed by an unprecedented movement of Tibetans into exile. There are now more than 150,000 Tibetan refugees all over the world. This March a new documentary Never Forget Tibet premiered which tells the story of the Dalai Lama’s escape in his own words — while showcasing the rich art, culture and traditions of Tibet.
A new movement by Tibetan youth
In spite of China’s total repression of Tibetan culture, history, religion and language, there is a powerful new movement being led by the young generation of stateless Tibetans born in exile. Tibetan youth are taking action here in Toronto using their voices to fuel the freedom movement.
Chemi Lhamo, community health lead for Parkdale People’s Economy committee member for the International Tibet Network, is one of many young, local Tibetan-Canadian activists dedicated to the movement. Lhamo feels it’s her duty and responsibility to amplify the voices inside of Tibet, and she’s been putting her life at risk to do so.
Lhamo’s 2019 election as president of the University of Toronto Scarborough Student Union resulted in thousands of threats from Chinese students and personal attacks by the Chinese government. She also spent three days in a Greek jail for disrupting the Olympic torch ceremony, a story that received international coverage.
Yet despite her personal struggle, Lhamo emphasized that her story should not be at the forefront of Tibetan issues. She urges people to see the struggles of Tibetans and all marginalized communities as an issue that connects everyone.
“It’s easy to see the Tibetan issue as a Tibetan issue. I would advocate that it’s a human rights issue. And it’s an issue that also affects every Canadian or someone who lives on this Turtle Island and anywhere — because of the interconnected nature of the world.”
Chemi Lhamo
Chinese Colonial schools in Tibet
Lhamo was also involved as an organizer in the #NoBeijing2022 and #BoycottBeijing2022 campaigns which protested against China’s vast network of colonial boarding schools inside Tibet.
“Colonial boarding schools are taking children as young as six years old away from their parents and forcing them into these schools. Even if they live nearby they are forced to study, eat and sleep five days a week at these centres.” Lhamo said.
A report from US-based NGO The Tibet Action Institute uncovered data revealing that nearly 900,000 children have been separated from their families and communities in an effort to eliminate Tibetan identity and neutralize any resistance to Chinese rule. According to Tenzin, these children are not allowed to speak Tibetan or perform religious rituals and are forced to learn the Chinese language instead.
“It’s like what Indigenous people in Canada experienced. This is one of the greatest threats to Tibetan culture, Tibetan language and Tibetan religion,” Tenzin said.
“The Tibetan language, which was created actually to preserve Tibetan Buddhism is also very much a core of our identity,” Lhamo said.
Yangtso was born in Tibet, but escaped in 1998 to India, and recounted life growing up as a child forced into the Chinese colonial schools: “I had no idea about our culture. It wasn’t until I went to school in India that I started learning about our Tibetan history. I didn’t see any media about what was happening in Tibet until I escaped. I didn’t know what my grandparents faced,” Yangtso said.
For many Indigenous people, who were forced into residential schools by Canada’s government policies, the grief and reconciliation are neverending. “You cannot live on Turtle Island and not make the comparison between what young children had to go through here and what’s happening in Tibet, although the Chinese government is making it difficult for the international community to notice,” Lhamo said.
Media blackout, religious oppression and destruction inside Tibet
Tibet is completely cut off from the world, with an ongoing information blackout inside its borders that has persisted since the events leading up to the summer Olympics in 2008. A report by Human Rights Watch, entitled “I Saw It With My Own Eyes”, based on interviews with 203 Tibetan refugees outside China, unveiled that Chinese security forces used brutal beatings and lethal force against protesters during unrest in Tibet in 2008. Many of the protesters who were subsequently detained were further beaten and tortured, Human Rights Watch said.
After the 2008 Olympics, China launched a sweeping campaign to control the hearts and minds of Tibetans. Understanding the aftermath of this, Lhamo worked hard on the Bejing 2022 campaigns. “The crackdown inside of Tibet had worked so much — that’s why you don’t hear much about what’s happening,” Lhamo said.
Within Tibet, there’s also been ongoing destruction of religious Buddhist monasteries, centres and statues. The Chinese government began demolition in 2016 of 4,725 buildings at Larung Gar, which was established in 1980 as the largest academic Buddhist institute in the world. The eviction and destruction were carried out without any consultation with the 10,000 to 40,000 residents who wished to peacefully remain.
“Larung Gar’s destruction indicates the height of religious repression. This didn’t just affect Tibetans, it affects every Buddhist practitioner including millions of Chinese Buddhist practitioners, so it’s against its own citizens,” Lhamo said.
Tibetan way of life and a human rights framework
What Tibetan community organizers in Toronto would like people to understand is that the original culture that has existed in Tibet for thousands of years has been suppressed, while many other countries have achieved freedom.
“In Tibetan identity, there are three main pillars: our nomadic way of being, our language and our religion. The indigenous Tibetan community have been the caretakers of those lands for thousands of years and learned to be with nature while appreciating it and allowing it to thrive,” Lhamo said.
In 1987, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama won a Nobel Peace Prize for his proposed “Five-Point Peace Plan” for Tibet in an address to United States. It called for:
1: Transformation of the whole of Tibet, including the eastern provinces of Kham and Amdo, into a zone of Ahimsa (nonviolence).
2: Abandonment of China’s population transfer policy.
3: Respect for the Tibetan people’s fundamental rights and democratic freedoms.
4: Restoration and protection of Tibet’s natural environment.
5: Commencement of earnest negotiations on the future status of Tibet and of relations between the Tibetan and Chinese people.
China has blocked all UN Security Council resolutions on Tibet since the People’s Republic took over China’s seat in the UN in 1971. According to a report by the Tibet Policy Institute, cultural genocide is happening through China’s systematic destruction of Tibetan religion, education and language is the complete annihilation of the Tibetan culture and way of life.
The report states that there is “an urgent need to further develop the concept of cultural genocide”, and that “world leaders and the international community must and should take a proactive stand regarding the cultural genocide that is taking place in Tibet.”
The hope for a free Tibet
Although not officially recognized by the UNHCR as refugees, over 150,000 Tibetans are living in exile with the hope of returning to their homeland one day. Lhamo is part of a large Tibetan diaspora that feels it’s their responsibility to amplify the voices inside of Tibet and to keep protesting in support of human rights.
Lhamo is one of many stateless Tibetans in exile. She was born outside of Tibet, grew up in Toronto and has never been able to visit Tibet. She describes the collective longing to visit her homeland and the hope for a future where Tibetans can all meet in a free Tibet:
“The yearning and the craving for knowing who you are, where you belong is so crucial to what makes an individual themselves. That’s what I work towards all my life and I’m dedicated to the movement in that sense, and nothing can shake my belief that there will one day be a free Tibet,” Lhamo said.
How to take action as an ally
Many Tibetans are grateful for finding a home in Toronto, and while love, compassion and welcoming are embedded in their culture, they also believe being an ally means constantly taking action through donating to Tibetan organizations and attending protests.
“As a Torontonian, you can talk with your money, but another way is to show up. It would be so nice to see other community members join us. Showing up physically is a great way to be an ally.”
Chemi Lhamo
Lhamo urged that Tibetans and other low-income local Toronto communities are concerned with food security, accessible and affordable housing and better transit, and voiced that our politicians are not representing those concerns. Lhamo emphasized that Tibetans and other marginalized communities have been left out of the conversation in many Toronto spaces. She also pointed to recognizing the importance of our role as we are all treaty people living on stolen Indigenous land.
“These communities that are so insular and look like they are happy and thriving, there’s so much that they have gone through to accomplish where they are. They have overcome so many struggles that could be easily transferred into the communities that we live in now,” Lhamo said.
Everyone is welcome
July is a significant month for the Tibetan community and Ontario has recognized it as Tibetan Heritage Month. On July 6, Tibetans in Toronto, across Ontario and the world celebrate the birthday of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso, an honorary Canadian citizen. This day symbolizes the unity of Tibetan-Canadians and their resilience as a people and all are welcome to join in the celebration.
The Tibetan Canadian Cultural Centre in Toronto is a temple and community centre established under the guidance the His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, where generations of local Tibetan people come to gather regularly. Language classes are being taught by elders every Sunday, as well as regular music and performing arts education. Anyone curious to learn is welcome to come and participate.
On Wednesdays at Parkdale Collegiate Institute, the local Tibetan community comes together in traditional dress to celebrate Gorshey, the Tibetan sacred dance where all are welcome.
Anyone looking to learn meditation or take Buddist classes is encouraged to visit The Karma Sonam Dargye Ling, a Tibetan Buddhist Temple located on Maynard Ave, in Parkdale.
“There are so many intersecting identities that need to be celebrated together, not just the commonalities but also our differences because there’s so much that we can learn,” Lhamo said.
Feature Photo and video by Melissa Embury.
Excellent article. As a long term resident of Parkdale I love my Tibetan neighbours and support their cause in any way I can.