Tibetans in Switzerland: Community, Culture and Religion

An independent, carefully researched overview by tibet-markets.ch. Not an official publication of any Tibetan organisation.

Who are the Tibetans in Switzerland?

Switzerland is home to one of the largest Tibetan communities in Europe. Its history begins in the autumn of 1960 and reaches into the present, shaped by three very different generations and migration stories. People with Tibetan roots in Switzerland today arrived by quite different routes: as refugee children in the early 1960s, through family reunification from the 1980s onwards, or more recently through the asylum process. This page gives an honest, source-based overview of history, community, religion and the main points of contact, without claiming to speak for the community.

A short history of the migration, since 1960

In October 1960 the first Tibetan refugees arrived in Switzerland. Twenty children were taken in at the Pestalozzi Children's Village in Trogen, the first children from outside Europe the village had ever received. Between August 1961 and March 1964 a separate programme followed: 158 Tibetan foster children were placed with Swiss families, a chapter that in hindsight was more complex than it appeared at the time and one that deserves to be looked at openly today.

On 29 March 1963 the Federal Council approved the admission of up to one thousand Tibetan refugees. They were the first non-European refugees Switzerland took in. Switzerland is regarded, including by the Central Tibetan Administration itself, as the first Western country to admit Tibetans in significant numbers.

The full history of these early years, with all its facets, is set out in our article "How Tibetans came to Switzerland".

Three generations, different migration stories

The Tibetan community in Switzerland is not uniform. A study commissioned by the federal government in 2024 describes the migration in three waves: the original refugee generation from the 1960s onwards, migration through family reunification from around the 1980s, and a more recent wave since the 2000s under changed asylum rules. Some people grew up here and know Tibet only from their grandparents' accounts. Others came as children, others again only recently. This variety is part of the community's history and should not be simplified into a single narrative.

The community today: family, youth, language and schools

The Tibetan community in Switzerland is remarkably well organised. Regional associations, youth organisations and women's organisations actively maintain language, religion and culture. One central element is Tibetan weekend schooling, where children and young people learn the language, the script and the culture. According to the Tibetan Community of Switzerland and Liechtenstein, around 706 pupils attended such weekend schools in June 2026, spread across 25 cantons.

Tibetan Buddhism and the monastery at Rikon

Tibetan Buddhism shapes the religious life of many Tibetans in Switzerland. At its centre stands the Tibet Institute Rikon in the canton of Zurich, a Tibetan Buddhist monastery and cultural centre inaugurated on 9 November 1968 under the patronage of the 14th Dalai Lama. It remains the only institute of its kind in Switzerland, with a library of roughly 10,000 to 12,000 titles and around a hundred cultural and religious events each year, many of them open to the public.

More on the history and monastic life at Rikon can be found in our article "The Tibet Institute Rikon: a centre of Tibetan Buddhist life in Switzerland since 1968".

Key organisations

This overview is curated, not exhaustive. It groups the main points of contact by their role, since these are very different kinds of organisation.

Community and representation

• Tibetan Community of Switzerland and Liechtenstein (TGSL), founded in 1973, the central umbrella organisation with regional sections across Switzerland and in Liechtenstein. tibetswiss.ch
• Tibet Bureau Geneva, founded in 1964, the official representation of the Dalai Lama and the Central Tibetan Administration for Central and Eastern Europe. tibetoffice.ch

Religion and culture

• Tibet Institute Rikon, Tibetan Buddhist monastery and cultural centre in the canton of Zurich, inaugurated in 1968. tibet-institut.ch
• Tibet Songtsen House, opened in 1997 and organised as an association since 2000, a cultural centre in Zurich-Oerlikon with talks, films, concerts, exhibitions and courses on Tibetan and other Asian cultures. songtsenhouse.ch

Youth, women and social support

• Tibetan Youth Association in Europe (VTJE), founded in 1970, cultural, social and political youth work in several European countries. vtje.org
• Shenpen, an advice and information service on asylum, administration and language barriers, run as a project of the VTJE. shenpen.ch
• Tibetan Women's Organisation Switzerland (TFOS), cultural, social and religious events for women. tfos.online

Regional communities

• Tibetan Community Basel (TIGBA), active since 2001, with Ven. Pema Tenzin as spiritual director since 2021.

Swiss support organisations and directories

• Swiss Tibetan Friendship Association (GSTF), founded in 1983, the largest Swiss non-governmental organisation for Tibet with around 1,500 members. gstf.org
• Verein Tibetfreunde, voluntary development cooperation and humanitarian aid, mainly for Tibetans in India and Nepal. tibetfreunde.ch
• Swiss Buddhist Union (SBU), a directory of Buddhist centres in Switzerland, filterable by place and tradition, not itself a Tibetan community organisation. sbu.net

Please note: these descriptions were researched carefully by tibet-markets.ch. For current and binding information, please visit the respective website.

Events and places you can visit

The Tibet Institute Rikon regularly opens its doors for cultural and religious events, including school visits. Losar, the Tibetan New Year, is celebrated by the community throughout Switzerland, often with public events organised by the regional associations. If you would like to know more about the festivals and their meaning, there is a separate article on this in our journal.

How to read these figures

Depending on the source, the year of the survey and the definition used, different figures are given for the Tibetan population in Switzerland. A study carried out for the federal government in 2024 gives around 7,500 people. Other sources give up to 8,000, an estimate from 2018 that is still widely repeated. The Federal Council itself stated in 2025 that no more recent, reliable figures are available. The numbers differ in part according to whether association members, people of Tibetan origin, or people with Tibetan roots are counted. For this reason tibet-markets.ch deliberately refrains from giving a single, definitive figure.

Further sources

Swiss Federal Archives, Historical Dictionary of Switzerland, Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, and the websites of the organisations named above. The full list of sources can be found at the end of our longer articles.

Related articles and products

Longer articles: How Tibetans came to Switzerland · The Tibet Institute Rikon · Tibetan language and schools in Switzerland

If you are interested in Tibetan culture, our range includes handmade singing bowls, prayer flags and statues, which hold a settled place in the practice of many families and monasteries. More on this in the categories Ritual & Sacred Objects and Home & Altar.

Last reviewed: 8 August 2026

Methodology: this page is researched independently by tibet-markets.ch and reviewed on an ongoing basis. We are glad to receive corrections or updates through our contact form.