Bay Area Tibetans Celebrate Tibet Day

Bay Area Tibetans and supporters will intensify their San Francisco leg of Tibetan campaign, against Beijing 2008 Olympics, at the 22nd Annual Tibet Day celebration in the city on December 15, 2007.

San Francisco is the only U.S. city through which will pass on April 9, 2008, the Beijing Olympics Torch, a symbol for international harmony and hope, which Tibetans and supporters say is misplaced because China continues to be the draconian architect of Tibet’s tragedy today as an occupied and bleeding nation.

San Francisco is also a host to a vibrant exile Tibetan community, whose members and supporters have for the last two decades celebrated Tibet Day to showcase the rich and ancient arts and crafts from Tibet and its neighboring Himalayan regions.

We are proud to call this beautiful city our home away from our occupied home.

said Ngodup Tsering, President of the Tibetan Association of Northern California (TANC).

But it also pains us deeply that our elected authorities and officials agreed to let Beijing carry its Olympics torch through the city without asking them some tough questions about the human rights abuses and cultural genocide that China continues to orchestrate inside Tibet.

China invaded Tibet in 1949, soon after Communists came to power the same year and installed Mao Zedong as the helmsman. By 1959, it had laid a complete siege over the defenseless country, forcing the Tibetan leader, the Dalai Lama, to escape to India, followed by tens of thousands of Tibetans in an exodus which continues to this day. Some 1.2 million Tibetans have died as a direct result of Chinese occupation. Tibetans say the controversial Beijing-Lhasa Railroad, which opened last June and is poised to bring in around 6000 Chinese every year, will only accelerate marginalization of Tibetan identity.

For the past 30 years, Beijing has responded to the Dalai Lama’s overtures for a peaceful resolution of the Tibet issue with intransigence, refusing to even accept that there is a problem in the Himalayan country. While the Tibetan leader has acceded to China’s lordship over Tibet in return for substantial autonomy and freedom, Chinese authorities accuse him of “trying to split the motherland.”

Just last month, in recognition of his advocacy for peace and compassion, the Tibetan leader was awarded the U.S. Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honor in the country. At the ceremony on Capitol Hill, the U.S. President, George W. Bush, called on China to open talks with the Tibetan Nobel Laureate, adding

They will find this good man to be a man of peace and reconciliation.

China responded by accusing the U.S. of meddling with China’s internal affairs and termed the award ceremony “a violation of international norms.” Inside Tibet, China ordered a new wave of arrests when Tibetans spilled out into the streets and monastery courtyards to celebrate the U.S. honor for their exiled leader.

Our political campaign against Beijing 2008 Olympics is part of a global effort to expose China’s attempt to deceive the world community into believing that it upholds the universal ideals of peace and justice, when China’s military regime inside Tibet continues to stifle all voices for political rights and religious freedoms with harrowing brutality.

said Dawa Dorjee, President of San Francisco Regional Tibetan Youth Congress (RTYC).

Even in the run-up to the Olympics, Chinese soldiers continue to shoot down Tibetans like dogs.

said Yangchen Chazotsang of Students for a Free Tibet (SFT). She was referring to an incident two years ago at a Mount Everest pass, Nang Pa La, when Westerner climbers played shocked witnesses to Chinese soldiers shooting at Tibetans trying to escape into Nepal.

This Tibet Day, Internationally-acclaimed Tibetan artists and local participants will regale audiences with folk songs and dances harking back to Tibet’s past as a peaceful Buddhist country. Glittering works of arts and craftsmanship will be available for purchase or simply admiration. Visitors will get to see master painters at work on wondrous Thangka paintings, and there will be food stalls where to splurge on delicious Tibetan momos and other delicacies. Other attractions include films and documentaries on Tibet and a panel discussion on Tibet and China Olympics.

Tibetans have so much to offer to the world. Their belief in peace and compassion bear its stamp on not just their way of living, but their arts and craft, and at this war-torn time, Tibet Day is a great way of celebrating our innermost and profoundest aspirations.

said Giovanni Vassallo, President of Bay Area Friends of Tibet (BAFoT), the group behind the annual event.

While we appreciate what Tibet has given us, it is time we also gave hope to the Tibetan people.