house of music

this week His Holiness the Dalai Lama came to Charlottesville! we had the honor of hosting two tibetan musicians who performed the night before HHDL's talks and then on stage before he spoke at the charlottesville pavilion. dan has known techung for a long time, from back in the day that we lived in the bay area. it was pure bliss having them rehearse in our living room one sunny autumn afternoon. techung's vocals, his mastery of flute, dramyen and pewang, along with rinzing's gifted guitar playing, blended together to make a beautiful traditional sound with modern undertones. a little bit of the tibetan plateau delivered to my doorstep: political struggle, inner peace, and the interconnectedness of all things dark and light.

i was riveted to the couch when techung and rinzing performed lama khen in our home. 

what a gift! i found this incredibly moving video below of them performing that very song. 

please watch it to the very end!

an urge for dialogue

if you are concerned about recent events in tibet, and wish for china to refrain from violence and instead, open up dialogue with the dalai lama, please take a few seconds to sign this petition.

the latest on events in tibet & china

Tibetan students hold vigil in Beijing
Curfew imposed in Xinjiang towns

ICT report, March 17, 2008

Tibetan students held a silent vigil in Beijing today to honor the courage of Tibetan protestors in Tibet. The group of around 50 students sat silently in a circle with heads bowed outside the Central Minorities University in the Haidian district of western Beijing this evening for around six hours. They were surrounded by an official security cordon preventing outsiders and other students from joining the protest, although some foreign reporters succeeded in gaining brief access to the protestors.

While some Tibetan students are known to have taken part in the pro-democracy demonstrations at Tiananmen Square in June 1989, this is the first known demonstration by Tibetans in China's capital.

According to a source who received a message from Beijing, the students were allowed to leave at around 1 am, which appears to indicate that the authorities had followed a strategy of containing the protest in order to avoid provoking further dissent. It is not clear whether reprisals will follow. One source reported that a senior Beijing official arrived at the protest to ensure it was closed peacefully.

There was also a peaceful protest today by students at the South-Western Minorities University in Chengdu, although details could not be confirmed at the time of going to press.

These two peaceful vigils follow a peaceful sit-down protest yesterday (March 16) of around 200 Tibetan students on the campus of from the Northwest Minority University in Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu province. In a message to a Tibetan in exile, one of the students said: "We are staging our protest in a very peaceful means and we are going to held a candle light vigil tonight." A foreign reporter who spoke to some of the students said that some of the students knew people who had been killed during the protests of the past week in Tibet, and that they wanted to pay silent tribute to their courage. One report said that some students in Lanzhou held a further sit-in today.

The protests by Tibetans in Beijing took place hours before the deadline imposed by the Chinese authorities for Tibetans to hand themselves in if they had taken part in rioting and demonstrations in Tibet's capital, Lhasa, over the past few days.

According to sources, the atmosphere in Lhasa is now 'terrifying', with soldiers carrying out house to house searches and taking people into custody. Tibetans who have pictures of the Dalai Lama are targeted and in some cases have been taken away. In an instant message communication with a Tibetan in exile, one Tibetan reported: "A [details withheld] university student child was taken by police. He was hit and as of now still can't stand." When asked why, the same source said: "Because he had a picture of Kundun [literally 'the presence', a reference to the Dalai Lama] around his neck."

A British newspaper, The Times, reported today that as the midnight deadline approached in Lhasa, four trucks in convoy made a slow progress along main roads, with about 40 people, mostly young Tibetan men and women, standing with their wrists handcuffed behind their backs, witnesses said. "A soldier stood behind each prisoner, hands on the back of their necks to ensure their heads were bowed," reported Jane Macartney from Beijing. "Loudspeakers on the trucks broadcast calls to anyone who had taken part in the violent riots on Friday, in which Han Chinese and Hui Muslims were stabbed and beaten and shops and business set on fire, to turn themselves in. Those who gave themselves up might be treated with leniency, the rest would face severe punishment, the broadcasts said." A blogger on a Chinese website also referred to the incident. Reliable sources informed ICT today that foreign non-governmental organizations had been asked to leave Lhasa, although details could not be confirmed.

Curfews imposed in Xinjiang

According to Uyghur sources, the authorities in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), or East Turkestan, have imposed curfews following the protests and crackdown in Tibet in at least two towns in Xinjiang, Kashgar, and Hotan. Perhaps fearing copycat protests, people have been instructed to be home by 10 pm, and there is a stepped up security presence of police with guard dogs. According to reliable reports, people found outside after 10 pm have been detained.

This report can be read online.


Press contact:

Kate Saunders
Communications Director, ICT
Tel: +44 7947 138612
email: press@savetibet.org

free tibet

Statement by the Dalai Lama on recent events:

I am deeply concerned over the situation that has been developing in Tibet following peaceful protests in many parts of Tibet, including Lhasa, in recent days. These protests are a manifestation of the deep-rooted resentment of the Tibetan people under the present governance.

As I have always said, unity and stability under brute force is at best a temporary solution. It is unrealistic to expect unity and stability under such a rule and would therefore not be conducive to finding a peaceful and lasting solution.

I therefore appeal to the Chinese leadership to stop using force and address the long-simmering resentment of the Tibetan people through dialogue with the Tibetan people. I also urge my fellow Tibetans not to resort to violence.

-- THE DALAI LAMA

as you can imagine, our household is paying close attention to events unfolding in and about tibet. a lot of the news and footage can be found online. here are a few links.

bbc video of the dalai lama

videos of recent events, including peaceful tibetan protesters clashing with the nypd. what's up with that anyway?

press release by international campaign for tibet

send a statement to the international olympic committee

the latest news on tibet by tibetans

video piece by the guardian uk

video piece about the tibetans' olympia torch ceremony

unbelievable footage of rightfully angry tibetans (ignore the commercial at the beginning. and hopefully you have windows media player, unlike me)

The World is Watching, China!!!

(I received this recently)

Dear SFT members and supporters,


*** Before you read this, please keep in mind that the safety of
people like those I'm about to mention is in the hands of people like
us. We have worked to open up space for people in Tibet to speak out,
and now Tibetans are taking that risk, built on the hope that the
world is watching. Now we must fulfill that role. We must be watching
and making others to watch, so that China has no favorable course of
action, so that China must back down and refrain from violence as
Tibetans tell us the real story. ***


This year's Uprising Day brought with it the largest protests in Lhasa
in nearly 20 years. Details are still coming out but scarce. It seems
there were at least 3 major protests:

- On March 10 itself, a large number of Tibetans gathered in the
Barkor square, perhaps around 100, encircling police as a smaller
group staged a demonstration. 16 people were arrested, 14 of them
monks and one as young as 15 years old.

- Also on M10, 300 monks marched from Drepung towards central Lhasa.
Reports indicate they intended to protest in front of the Potala for
the release of others detained in October at the time the Dalai Lama
received the Congressional Gold Medal. 50-60 from the march were
detained.

- On March 11, 500-600 people, mostly monks, marched from Sera
monastery to the police station to demand the release of those
arrested at the Barkor. They were attacked by police with teargas;
it remains unknown how many were arrested.

Both Sera and Drepung monastery have since been sealed off, converting
them into a sort of prison themselves.

An eyewitness report of the first protest can be found on this travel
blog

Latest news

News updates are coming in frequently, this is the best place to keep up with them


Please:
- WATCH the events in Tibet as they unfold.
- TELL all of your friends and family members what's going on and ask
them to do the same. If you use Facebook, etc., post the news
articles there!
- Write to local and nationwide news media and ask them to cover the
story in Tibet.
- Contact me to volunteer in coordinating and mobilizing for Tibet.



Never forget, our eyes watching DO MATTER. 20 years ago, the tear gas
police fired would have instead been bullets and hundreds of Tibetan
patriots might be dead. But while treatment may be lighter on the
surface, China still aims to do the same violence behind closed doors,
through beatings and torture of those arrested, if they can get away
with it. We're here to see to it that they can't. It's that simple.

Join Tibetans in making history in 2008.
ONE WORLD. ONE DREAM. FREE TIBET 2008!


In solidarity,

Rich Felker
Students for a Free Tibet
Mid-Atlantic Regional Coordinator