[LINK] "Tibetans in GTA to mark uprising"

[rfmcdonald]

The Toronto Star's Lesley Ciarula Taylor writes about how Toronto's Tibetan-Canadian community, the largest Tibetan diasporic community outside of Tibet's immediate neighbourhood, will be commemorating the 50th anniversary of the 1959 uprising against Chinese rule.

Tibetan shops and restaurants across Greater Toronto will close today as many of the 3,500 Tibetans living here join a global effort to protest the 50th anniversary of their failed uprising against Chinese control.

"Of course, we will close. We are observing this community day to ask for fundamental human rights in Tibet and request the governments of the world to help," said Gyaltsen, surrounded by Tibetan videos on the counter of his Tibetan Emporium and Entertainment Store, a meeting place of sorts in the heart of Little Tibet in Parkdale.

Gyaltsen, born in Tibet, keeps the tradition of only one name.

Toronto is home to the largest expatriate community of Tibetans in the world outside of India and Nepal. Posters covered doors up and down Queen St. W., west of Jameson Ave. yesterday and handwritten apologies announced businesses would close today.

Sonam Lama and his wife, Jamyana Palmo, will be part of the throng that gathers at 9:30 a.m. at Parkdale Library to march to the Chinese Consulate at 240 St. George St.

Lama, who opened Tibet Arts and Crafts at Queen St. W. and Palmerston Ave. two years ago, grew up in India hearing the stories of how Tibetans fled in 1959.

"My mother talked about walking without food for days. Finally, they had to eat their shoes. A lot of people died."

Canadians who come to his shop are sympathetic to Tibet, he said, and will buy Tibetan flags, Buddhas, and scrolls with the words of the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader who fled from Tibet 50 years ago.