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The recent Tibet Awareness Week (Nov. 13-17) was the first ever at Hamline. The Students for a Free Tibet (SFT) decided to put on the event this summer after realizing that they could combine a number of things they do throughout the year into a single week. While the project was spearheaded by the SFT, it was also put on with assistance from the Conflict Studies Department and the Multicultural Alliance.

Senior Tenzin Yangdon, a leader of the SFT, felt that an entire Tibet Awareness Week was necessary because “Tibet is either highly mystified, politicized or people know very little about it,” said Yangdon. “With China becoming a major global power, Tibet [is] a profoundly important subject for ensuring peace in Asia.”

After months of preparation and promotion, TAW kicked off on Monday Nov. 13 with a street theater performance in Sorin over the noon hour. The play, which featured members of SFT in its cast, depicted Chinese soldiers capturing Tibetans as they tried to escape over the border and out of the country. SFT Treasurer Matt Kitchin played one of the Chinese soldiers and thought that while the non-violent display did a good job of getting the word out, people may have been a little confused. “After all,” he said, “it’s not every day when you see guns, flags and soldiers all over Sorin.”

On the following evening, Nov. 14, Dr. Lobsang Sangay, a research fellow of the East Asian Legal Studies Program at the Harvard Law School, spoke in the Sundin Music Hall. Despite a fairly small turnout, Dr. Sangay was well received by those in attendance. His presentation detailed the history of the China-Tibet conflict and attempted to offer some solutions. When asked afterward why the United States has so little interest in Tibet, Dr. Sangay simply said, “We have no oil. Lots of monks but no oil.”

Tibet Awareness Week then continued on Nov. 16 with the showing of the 1997 movie Seven Years in Tibet starring Brad Pitt. The film is based on the true story of Heinrich Harrer, an Austrian mountain climber during World War II. The purpose behind the movie night was to critically examine the picture Hollywood paints of the pivotal time in the Tibet-China conflict and determine its accuracy.

To conclude the week there was a Tibetan cultural dance show preformed by a group of Tibetan Americans in the Student Center Ball Room. The dances were performed in traditional attire and were also accompanied by the music of Tibetan instruments.

While the events of TAW may not have changed the world in earth-shattering ways, Yangdon hopes that it may have “inspired students to work towards creating a just world and fighting for change in Darfur, Tibet, Iraq or any other place where injustice is occurring.” SFT is still hard at work planning additional awareness activities and will attend the upcoming National Conference of Students for a Free Tibet.