This dissertation examines how Tibetan exiles were able to redefine peoplehood as displaced persons in India and Nepal and as naturalized American citizens. After the 1959 Chinese colonial occupation of Tibet, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama created a Tibetan Government in Exile in India to rehabilitate the Tibetan people and work towards restoring Tibet's independence. In His Holiness's new 'Tibet' operating alongside Chinese-occupied Tibet, exiles were taught to embrace and practice democracy with the national goal of regaining Tibet's independence. Exiles believed that the Tibetan Government in Exile was the true government of Tibet and understood themselves to be refugees of Chinese invasion, despite the lack of recognition of their legal refugee status by all nation-states. However, an exiled government and a political base of followers backing an anti-colonial movement in South Asia were not enough. His Holiness looked to the United States to garner stronger support for Tibetan sovereignty. This study explores the transformations in the Tibetan Freedom Movement and particularly how Tibetan immigration to the U.S. since the beginning of exile was an integral part of how Tibetans shaped and reshaped the methods of the freedom struggle for independence. In looking at Tibetan immigrant experiences, I trace how the lack of the U.S. government's support for, and disavowal of Tibet's independence led to Tibetan immigrants using cultural and religious enrichment as a means to garner sympathy and support for Tibet. A central aspect of Tibetan activism in the United States became the reliance on American interests in Buddhism, the perpetuation of Shangri-la stereotypes, and the Dalai Lama's visits to propel the visibility of Tibet. This cultural recognition approach later became influential in how the Tibetan Government in Exile was able to permanently resettle 1,000 Tibetans to the U.S. and expand the scope of their influence after the passing of the Immigration Act of 1990, Tibetan Provision 134. While raising awareness about Tibet and living under the Tibetan Government in Exile, the various political transformations in the Tibetan Freedom Movement provided Tibetan exiles the possibility to live in a sovereign, territory-less Tibetan nation outside of their homeland.