Tibetan Americans areAmericans ofTibetan ancestry. As of 2020, more than 26,700 Americans are estimated to have Tibetan ancestry.^[1] The majority of Tibetan Americans reside inQueens, New York.^[4]

Ethnic Tibetans began to immigrate to the United States in the late 1950s.^[5] Section 134 of theImmigration Act of 1990 gave a boost to the Tibetan immigration to the US, by providing 1,000 immigrant visas to Tibetans living in India andNepal.^[6][5]Chain migration followed, and by 1998 the Tibetan American population had grown to around 5,500, according to a census conducted byCentral Tibetan Administration (CTA). The2000 US census counted 5,147 US residents who reported Tibetan ancestry.^[6]

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• 1948: Telopa Rinpoche is hired byJohns Hopkins University to teachTibetan Buddhism.
• 1952:14th Dalai Lama's elder brother,Taktser Rinpoche and his friend Dhondup Gyaltsen immigrate to the United States.
• 1955:GesheNgawang Wangyal arrives in the US He serves as religious leader and spiritual teacher of aKalmykMongolian community inNew Jersey and teaches atColumbia University.
• 1957–1971: Tibetan guerrilla fighters are trained by the CIA and launch numerous incursions into Tibet.
• 1958: The firstTibetan Buddhistmonastery inNorth America, Labsum Shedrup Ling, is established inNew Jersey under the spiritual guidance of Geshe Wangyal.^[7]
• 1960: TheRockefeller Foundation establishes eight centers forTibetan studies in the US, which invite 17Tibetan lamas.^[8]
• 1964: Six Tibetans, four fromIndia and two from the US, enroll in a year-long special intensive program atCornell University to studypublic administration andeconomics.
• 1967–1969: Six Tibetans immigrate to the US to work aslumberjacks for theGreat Northern Paper Company inPortage Lake, Maine. The following year, 21 others joined them.
• 1971: The CIA cancels its covert operations supportingTibetan guerrillas following PresidentRichard Nixon's trip toChina and a new era of improvedUS–Sino relations.
• 1986: There are 256 Tibetans living in the US according to a population survey conducted by the Office of Tibet, New York.
• 1988:Tibet Fund begins administering yearlyFulbright Program scholarshipgrants to bring Tibetansstudents and professionals to the US forhigher education.
• 1989: The Tibetan United States Resettlement Project (TUSRP) is established to support the resettlement of 1,000 Tibetans. Edward Bednar is appointed director.
• April 1989: ICT presidentTenzin Tethong, the Dalai Lama's Representative Rinchen Dharlo and Edward Bednar meet withpro-Tibet organizations,resettlement agencies,congressional staff,immigration law advisors, etc. to begin 18 months of advocacy for TUSRP.
• 1991: As part of Fulbright scholarships administered byTibet Fund, Berea College in Berea, Kentucky enrolls the first batch of two students with two succeeding each following year to study in 4 year undergraduate programs. The program still continues with over 20 graduates, who have mostly resettled in America.
• 1992: The first group of the 1,000 Tibetans arrives in the US under the TUSRP and settles in six cluster sites throughout the US.
• 1993: In little more than a year since the first group of Tibetans arrived in 1992, 21 cluster sites open in 18 different states across the United States.
• 1993–2002: Through family reunification, more Tibetans arrive to join the original 1,000. By 2002 there are approximately 8,650 Tibetans and 30 Tibetan community associations in the United States.

An estimate of c. 7,000 was made in 2001,^[5] and in 2008 the CTA's Office of Tibet in New York informally estimated the Tibetan population in the US at around 9,000.^[6] In 2020, The Central Tibetan Administration estimated the number of Tibetans living in the United States to be over 26,700.^[1] The migration of the Tibetans to the United States took on the pattern of 22 "cluster groups", located primarily in theNortheast, theGreat Lakes region and theIntermountain West. Other communities includeAustin, Texas andCharlottesville, Virginia. Tibetan Americans who are born in Tibet or elsewhere in Tibet are officially recognized as Chinese nationals not by choice due to China's occupation of Tibet.^[9]

Communities of Tibetan Americans in the Northeast exist inBoston andAmherst, Massachusetts,Ithaca, New York, andNew York City, and in the states ofConnecticut,Vermont, andNew Jersey. In New York and New Jersey, they live primarily in Queens and New Brunswick.

The town ofNorthfield, Vermont has been home for many years to the seat of the currentTrijang Rinpoche, who has been estranged from theDalai Lama due to theDorje Shugden controversy, which has become a cultural heritage center for thousands of followers.

In the Mid-Atlantic region, the largest communities can be found inNorthern Virginia,Washington, D.C.,Montgomery County, Maryland,Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, andCharlottesville, Virginia.

Communities of Tibetan Americans in theGreat Lakes region exist inChicago and in the states ofMinnesota,Ohio,Indiana,Wisconsin, andMichigan. There is a Tibetan Mongol Buddhist Cultural Center inBloomington, Indiana near the campus ofIndiana University.^[10] The late brother of theDalai Lama,Thubten Jigme Norbu was a professor at the university.

Minnesota has the second largest concentration of Tibetan Americans in the United States.^[11]

Communities of Tibetan Americans in the western U.S. exist inSeattle, Washington,Portland, Oregon,Berkeley, California, several locations inSouthern California, and in the cities and states ofColorado Springs, Colorado,Boise, Idaho,Montana,Albuquerque, New Mexico,Washington, andSalt Lake City, Utah.

Every year, Seattle holds an annualTibet Festival in August.

Although quite small in number overall, Colorado has one of the highest concentrations of Tibetans inNorth America, focused onBoulder,Colorado Springs,Douglas County andCrestone. The state hasNaropa University whose values statement states, "We are Buddhist-inspired, ecumenical, and nonsectarian welcoming faculty, staff, and students of all faiths as well as those who don’t ascribe to any religion."^[12] There is a Buddhist commune^{[citation needed]} west ofCastle Rock and several cities have Tibetan outreach organizations. Colorado Springs alone has three Tibetan stores and a restaurant.

Much of the reason^{[citation needed]} behind this rather peculiar demographic is thatTibetan guerrillas were secretly trained by theCentral Intelligence Agency (CIA) atCamp Hale outside ofLeadville. Camp Hale was used as a training camp for expatriate Tibetans to be inserted to aid the existing resistance in Tibet after the region was retaken by theChinese People's Liberation Army, between 1959 and 1965.

From 1958 to 1960,Anthony Poshepny trained various special missions teams, including TibetanKhambas andHuiMuslims, for operations inChina against theCommunist government. Poshepny sometimes claimed^{[citation needed]} that he personally escorted the14th Dalai Lama out of Tibet, but sources in the Tibetan exile deny this.

The site was chosen because of the similarities of theRocky Mountains in the area with theHimalayan Plateau. The CIA parachuted four groups^[13] of Camp Hale trainees inside Tibet between 1959 and 1960 to contact the remaining resistance groups, but the missions resulted in the death or capture of many team members.

• Lodi Gyari, diplomat, former special envoy of the Dalai Lama^[14]
• Chögyam Trungpa, Buddhist meditation master
• Ngawang Wangyal, Buddhist priest and scholar
• Tarthang Tulku, introduced theNyingma tradition ofTibetan Buddhism into the United States
• Thupten Jigme Norbu, Tibetanlama, writer, civil rights activist and professor of Tibetan studies
• Trijang Rinpoche,GelugLama and a direct disciple ofPabongkhapa Déchen Nyingpo
• Kesang Marstrand, folk singer, songwriter, and guitarist
• Lobsang Nyandak, former representative of the 14th Dalai Lama to the Americas and president of theTibet Fund
• Aftab Pureval, Mayor ofCincinnati
• Tenzing Rigdol, artist^[15]

• Tibetan Canadians
• Students for a Free Tibet
• American Himalayan Foundation
• Tibet Fund

• Tibetan Association of Northern California
• Tibetan Community of New York and New Jersey
• Tibetan American Foundation of Minnesota
• "A Tibetan American Family: A Literary Novel" (Georgetown University, Dept. of English)
• Capital Area Tibetan Association

• American people of Tibetan descent
• Tibetan diaspora in the United States
• Asian diaspora in the United States

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