*Nolan Zavoral, "The Dalai Lama in the Twin Cities," The Star Tribune, February 27, 2001, p. 1A, and March 10, 2001, p. 7B.

Tibet's recent history
Many Tibetans today live in exile from their homeland. The Chinese Communists invaded Tibet in 1950 and destroyed a nearly 500-year-old monastery, suppressed Buddhism and tortured and killed its followers. After a failed revolt in 1959, 90 monks followed their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, into exile in the foothills of the Himalayas and northern India, where traditional Tibetan life is maintained by 100,000 refugees. Buddhist monasteries continue to form the nucleus of Tibet's simmering independence movement, while Tibetan communities all over the world continue to work toward an independent Tibet.

Flute player and singer at Losar 2002 Listen to their song: MP3 Download (2.39 MB) RealMedia Download (1.08 MB)

Tibetans in Minnesota
In 1992, the first Tibetans arrived in Minnesota through the Tibetan Resettlement Project, a program resulting from a 1990 Congressional act bringing Tibetans in exile to the United States with special visas. Most Tibetans who came to Minnesota in the early 1990s first had to evade Chinese soldiers while escaping through the mountains to India. The Twin Cities area was one of seven U.S. communities approved by Tibetan government officials to receive about 200 Tibetans, beginning in April 1992. As of 2002, there are between nine hundred and one thousand Tibetans in Minnesota: the second-largest Tibetan community in the country, half the size of New York's. The first Tibetans to arrive in Minnesota began working in hotels, but now have largely fanned into health care occupations.

The local Tibetan Buddhist community began forming in the Twin Cities area in large part because of the work of a former monk who settled in New Brighton, Minnesota. Thupten Dadak and his then-wife, Ani Nagawang Chodon, gave arriving Tibetan Buddhists a place to stay and found them jobs. Dadak also founded the Tibetan American Foundation of Minnesota (TAFM), which from its office in Uptown in Minneapolis keeps about 1,000 Tibetan Buddhists in touch with their culture.
 

Singers at Losar, Tibetan New Year St. Paul Armory St. Paul, Minnesota February 15, 2002 Listen to their song: MP3 Download (1.51 MB) RealMedia Download (703 KB)

Important dates in the Tibetan community
Some important dates for the Tibetan international diaspora are:
Losar, the Tibetan New Year, which can fall between Jan. 21 and Feb. 19
Uprising Day on March 10
The Dalai Lama’s birthday on July 6

To find out about the celebration of these kinds of events in the Twin Cities, contact the Tibetan American Foundation of Minnesota:

2344 Nicollet Avenue, Suite 325
Minneapolis, MN 55404
tel. 612.872.4866
email: tafm@mtn.org
 

Singers at Losar 2002 Listen to their song: MP3 Download (451 KB) RealMedia Download (222 KB)