Tenzin Chokter, 23, has come a long way from the pristine and remote hills of Miao in India’s Arunachal Pradesh to Canada.
He arrived in Canada as a 11 year old with his family in 2014 as part of Project Tibet Society’s Tibetan Resettlement Project. His family is among the 1,000 displaced Tibetans from some of India’s remotest places such as Miao, Tezu, Bomdila, Tuting, and Tenzigang where Tibetans had been living for decades without any citizenship rights. All these families now call Canada home, thanks to the resettlement program.
And he has made everyone who knows him super proud by being the most recent graduate of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Cadet Training Program. In his new role, Chokter serves as a constable in Alberta.
The Tibetan Resettlement Project was the initiative of the Canada Tibet Committee that incorporated Project Tibet Society under the presidentship of Nima Dorjee and was executed with the generous help of local Tibetan cultural associations and other Tibet supporters from across Canada.
Under the program, which was executed purely with private donations, the first batch of Tibetans arrived in Toronto and Ottawa, Canada, in November 2013. Subsequent batches have settled in other parts of Canada including Calgary.
The resettlement program was born out of a meeting between His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama and then Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in 2007. His Holiness had requested the Canadian PM to facilitate the resettlement of 1,000 Tibetans from refugee settlements from India in Canada.
Talking exclusively to Dancing Yaks, Chokter said, “I was so young when I arrived in Canada. Everything was new, different, and unfamiliar. Learning the language, getting acclimatized to the climate, and the school system took some time initially.”
He shared that as much as he was excited about this new phase in his life, overcoming the language barrier was a major hurdle and he made new friends. Having friends among fellow Tibetans who had also come to Canada from the same village as him in India made the transition smoother.
Prior to cracking the RCMP program, Chokter was studying Bachelor of Computer Science (Honors) from York University in Toronto.
Grueling 26-Week Training
The 26-week training program of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) is extremely rigorous and tests a candidate’s mental strength, physical fitness, and integrity among other things.
Calling the training “very demanding”, Chokter shared that the application process took almost a year. “I had to undergo extensive background checks, complete suitability interviews, and psychological test. Once that was cleared, I was selected to be a cadet,” he added.
The grueling training takes place in the city of Regina, Saskatchewan, and cadets complete the course that has Applied Police Science, firearms training, police defensive training, driving, physical fitness and other essential skills training.
Recalling his training days, he said, “We were constantly being evaluated on our performance. Every single day was demanding. And we could be sent home any day for failing an assessment. We were regularly tested.”
Chokter said, in hindsight, the training was challenging as well as rewarding.
When asked what kept him motivated all through this challenging 26-week training that tests a cadet’s reasoning, judgment, integrity under pressure besides strict physical fitness, Chokter said, “My family.”
He said how being the oldest among his siblings was a big motivation for him to continue besides the love of his family. “I knew that they were waiting for me at home. They were worried for me and I didn’t want to let them down. My siblings look up to me and I wanted to set a good example for them.”
