Tsering Dolma Gyaltong

Member of the 13 Grandmothers Council

“I’d like to talk about problems in the world and what the sources of these problems are. I am Tibetan, so I will speak about the situation in Tibet, which affects all of us. Tibetans took very good care of the land, but now it is becoming a place where radioactive waste from all over the world is being buried. It is a danger for everyone.”
—Tsering Dolma Gyaltong, member of the 13 Grandmothers Council

A founding member of the Tibetan Women’s Association, Tsering Dolma Gyaltong is one of the 13 grandmothers of the International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers, a global alliance that teaches ancestral ways of prayer, education, and healing. Tsering Dolma Gyaltong was born in Tibet in 1929. She and her family escaped to India from the Communist invasion of Tibet in 1958. In 1972, she and her family traveled to Canada as refugees. Later, she returned to India and became one of the founding members who revived the Tibetan Women’s Association (TWA).

For 10 years, Tsering Dolma Gyaltong served as an executive member of the TWA and established more than 30 branch offices worldwide. In 1995, she attended the Fourth World Women’s Conference held in Beijing, China, where she faced threats as she and others openly criticized the Chinese government and its treatment of the Tibetan people, especially Tibetan women. Today, she is an advisor to the TWA and resides in Toronto, Canada.