![]() ![]() Yak Cafe is the newest participant in the annual Momo Crawl, which is run by Students For A Free Tibet. Taking place on one Sunday every year, the Momo Crawl provides participants a 'momo passport' for $25 which grants them one traditional steamed dumplings from ten restaurants in Little Tibet. ![]() Many restaurants like OM serve a mix of Tibetan and Indian food. "We saw an opportunity with the growing number of Tibetan restaurants to promote visibility for Tibetans and educate about the Parkdale area." "We realized non-Tibetans loved momos," says Sonam Chokey, the National Director of SFT. Momos are stuffed with veggies or meat and come steamed, in soup, or fried. Tiny Cafe jut north of Jason's Coffee Shop is a new addition to the food scene.īut in a food-loving city like Toronto, the most visible facet of Little Tibet thus far has been the Momo Crawl, run annually by the Toronto chapter of Students For A Free Tibet (SFT). On Wednesdays in pre-COVID times you'd see scores of people gather by the tennis court to perform the traditional circle dance, performed here in solidarity with the Lhakar movement. You'll see Tibetan prayer flags hung proudly from residences and businesses all around Little Tibet. Just a few minutes walk on Jameson (south of the Vietnamese-owned and sometimes rowdy community hub Jason's Coffee Shop where many older Tibetan men congregate) is Parkdale College Institute, an historic high school whose student population is more than 30 percent Tibetan. Parkdale Collegiate Institute is undergoing renovations, so Lhakar circle dances have been moved from the lawn to the tennis court. The Parkdale-High Park riding is now represented by North America's first Tibetan elected official.īorne of that movement are people like Parkdale-native Bhutila Karpoche, who represents the Parkdale-High Park riding and is the first Tibetan to ever be elected into office in North America. Grassroots-level civic engagement here is pretty much unmatched in any other parts of the city, led by a highly politicized Tibetan youth who, unlike older generations, are equipped with English and the social services that Toronto has to offer. The Karma Sonam Dargye Ling Buddhist Temple sits on Maynard Avenue. in the form of, most notably, a slew of delicious restaurants like Loga's Corner and Norling, but also by way activism, and sometimes both combined. ![]() Since those early years, Tibetan culture has grown to define this small strip of Queen St. Loga's Corner is one of over ten businesses serving traditional Tibetan cuisine. The Parkdale community has long been known as an affordable landing area for immigrants.Ĭonsidered the last leg of a diasporic journey whose stops often include India and Nepal, it's been decades since the first Tibetans resettled in Canada in 1971 under the Tibetan Refugee Program, with more than 8,000 Tibetans living in Toronto today. The owners of Mandala Bakery are free to hang a photo of the Dalai Lama in their shop.Įven during off-hours, restaurants like Tsampa Cafe and Himalayan Kitchen are usually buzzing with locals speaking a mix of Hindi, Nepali, or Tibetan, while elders walk the streets with bags of frozen momos in hand. Women wearing traditional chupas walk along Jameson, and pictures of His Holiness hang freely in shops like Mandala Bakery, an action which warrants life imprisonment or death in Tibet today. Here, exiled Tibetans can express their culture without fear of persecution. Tibetan culture defines this strip of Queen between Dunn and Sorauren Ave. ![]()
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