Events > Upcoming events in Christchurch

Upcoming events in Christchurch

 

Tibetan Uprising Day & 50 years since HH Dalai Lama went into exile

Tue 10/Mar/2009, in cities across New Zealand, details to be confirmed in early 2009

Marking 50 years since the Tibetan Uprising Day and 50 years since HH Dalai Lama went into exile, events will be happening throughout New Zealand to mark this significant event and to draw attention to the human rights abuses, killings, disappearances, arbitrary arrests, and other attrocities that still continue today in Tibet. If you would like to contribute your skills to these events then please contact us.

One winter day of 1959 (March 10) General Chiang Chin-wu of Communist China extended a seemingly innocent invitation to the Tibetan leader to attend a theatrical show by a Chinese dance troupe. When the invitation was repeated with new conditions that no Tibetan soldiers was to accompany the Dalai Lama and that his bodyguards be unarmed, an acute anxiety befell the Lhasa populace. Soon a crowd of tens of thousands of Tibetans gathered around the Norbulingka Palace, determined to thwart any threat to their young leader's life.
On 17 March 1959 ... a few minutes before ten o'clock His Holiness, now disguised as a common soldier, slipped past the massive throng of people along with a small escort and proceeded towards Kyichu river, where He was joined by the rest of the entourage, including his immediate family members.
Official website of HH Dalai Lama - biography

The following resources provide further background to HH Dalai Lama's exile and the significance of the Tibetan Uprising Day.

Organised by the Tibet Solidarity Network. Email: wellington@tibetsolidarity.net.nz