From: The Encyclopedia of Canada's Peoples/Tibetans/Brian J. Given
Almost all Tibetans (99 percent) are Buddhists who follow the teachings of the Sakya, Kargyu, Nyingma, and Gelug schools, each with its own hierarchy of lamas, trained in both meditative disciplines and scholarship. Tibetans believe that lamas of great meditative attainment, having gained enlightenment, or freedom from Samsara (the world of illusions, which are the cause of suffering), choose to reincarnate in order to help all beings to gain liberation. Tibetans are quick to point out that the different traditions of teaching have never been mutually exclusive, but are better understood as compatible “flavours” of Tibetan spirituality and scholarship. Indeed, practitioners in one tradition may well receive their most important teaching from lamas in other traditions.
The present Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, known worldwide as winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for his commitment to non-violent resistance, is head only of the Gelug school, although he is considered by all Tibetans to be both their spiritual leader and their head of government. Under the Dalai Lama’s leadership, the Tibetan government-in-exile in Dharmsala, India, has developed a constitution that effectively redefines his role in primarily religious terms. The Tibetan parliament-in-exile includes elected members from the Tibetan refugee communities in Europe and North America.
It is difficult to overestimate the symbolic importance of the Dalai Lama himself and of the system of Buddhism which he represents. Tibetan Buddhism, with its profound emphasis on the development of compassion and personal responsibility, and the Dalai Lama’s personal example are central cultural themes for the Tibetan-Canadian community. Although they relate the horrors of the occupation of their homeland by the Chinese, Tibetans insist that hatred for their invaders can solve nothing.
According to Buddhist belief, all beings reincarnate through many lifetimes, and, in each lifetime, one interacts with the “reality” that one perceives, and that reality is conditioned by Karma (the law of cause and effect whereby one’s present experience of reality is the result of one’s past wholesome or unwholesome acts of body, speech, and mind throughout various lifetimes). These assumptions engender a sense of compassion for all beings regardless of one’s relationship with them in this lifetime. It is this way of understanding one’s own actions and the actions of others that underlies Tibetan-Canadian insistence on non-violent resistance.
That resistance is tied to the preservation of Tibetan culture in Tibetan-Canadian communities and is manifested in several ways. Tibetans celebrate cultural events such as Losar (the Tibetan New Year) at a time determined by the lunar calendar, usually in the middle of February, and they organize traditional community “pot-luck” feasts. Every 10 March on Uprising Day Tibetan Canadians join other Tibetans and their supporters all over the world in demonstrations to mark the anniversary of the 1959 uprising in Tibet. All communities celebrate the Dalai Lama’s birthday on 6 July and Democracy Day on 12 September. Some communities demonstrate every week for “human rights and freedom for Tibetans,” while all participate in special demonstrations against the arrest and torture of political prisoners or massacres of Tibetan people (for example, the 400 killed in Lhasa in 1989).
The Tibetan-Canadian community has interacted with all levels of government. Tibetan Canadians have obtained funding for a number of cultural events, have testified in hearings at the Department of External Affairs, and are in consultation with the Department of Immigration and Citizenship. A number of Tibetans have worked for their local members of parliament during elections.
Each of the larger Tibetan-Canadian communities also has a branch of the Khe-Bhod Lhentshog (Canada Tibet Committee), which is a national cultural and political organization, founded in October 1987, with headquarters in Montreal. It has ties to the Bhodkyi Dhonchoe Lekhung (Office of Tibet) in New York and to the government-in-exile in Dharmsala, India. Tibetan Canadians also have a computer-based news service, the Zamling Bhodkyi Netshul (World Tibet News), which links the Canadian communities with Tibetans all over the world, providing daily bulletins via the Internet.
