Toronto's Tibetan Community.

Toronto, Canada has the largest population of Tibetans in the western hemisphere. The only places with a higher concentration of Tibetan populations are Tibet, India, and Nepal. Toronto has been an ideal location for Tibetans to seek refuge in due to Canada's immigration policy. My family and I have been living in Toronto since 2002. There has been an explosion of the Tibetan population here in Toronto since then, from a hand full of people to thousands. Most of them living in a neighbourhood in Toronto's downtown area called Parkdale. This area has been the primary choice for settlement for the newly arrived Tibetans in Toronto. By living in an area with many Tibetans gives the area a very community oriented feeling helping the newly arrived people bridge the gap from back home to getting fimiliar with Toronto and Canada as a whole and getting used to a whole new society and environment. There are numerous Tibetan restaurants in the area, a community centre in the west end of the city in Etobicoke called Gangjong Chondenling or Tibetan Canadian Community Centre, different organizations in the Tibetan community from the Tibetan Youth Congress, Students For A Free Tibet, Tibetan Women's Association, to the Canadian Tibetan Association of Ontario. A few years ago, the most popular name for babies born in the Parkdale - High Park area of Toronto was Tenzin, which is His Holiness The Dalai Lama's first name, this just goes to show the the amount of Tibetans living in the area.

* His Holiness The Dalai Lama was awarded Honorary Canadian Citizenship in 2006 *

Above: A map of the Parkdale neighbourhood.

Above: Tibetans featured in pictures depicting the Parkdale community.