His Holiness the Dalai Lama greets the crowd of more than 50,000 at the Smithsonian annual Folklife Festival on the mall in Washington, DC on July 2, 2000.
An estimated crowd of over 6,000 Tibetans and Tibet supporters held a rally and a March for Tibet in front of the White House on July 1 to urge a more proactive U.S. action to help resolve the Tibet problem and to ask the World Bank to scrap its controversial project in Tibet.
ICT Chairman and human rights activist Richard Gere, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Maguire, Thai social activist Sulak Sivaraksa and Chairman of the Assembly of Tibetan People's Deputies Samdhong Rinpoche participated in the rally.
"The Tibetan situation can only be solved with an all-inclusive dialogue," Maguire, who won the Nobel peace prize in 1976 for her efforts to end the violence in Northern Ireland, told the crowd.
ICT's July 2, 2000 Event with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Washington DC
This section of the website uses the free Apple QuickTime software to play the video footage of this event. If you do not have this software, you can get it here. Please click on the names below to watch the video of that person speaking.
John Ackerly
President of the International Campaign for Tibet
Welcome
Ajia Rimpoche
Abbot of Kumbum Monastery
Opening Prayer and Remarks
Lodi Gyaltsen Gyari
Special Envoy for His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Executive Chairman of ICT's Board of Directors
Richard Gere
Chairman of ICT's Board of Directors
Mairead Maguire
Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and Member of ICT's International Counsel of Advisors
Mary Beth Markey
ICT Director of Government Relations
Julia V. Taft
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration
Kerry Kennedy Cuomo
Executive Director of Robert F. Kennedy Memorial and Member of ICT International Council of Advisors
Introduction of His Holiness the Dalai Lama
His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama
Please click on the links below to watch the video of His Holiness the Dalai Lama answering that question.
Question 1: Do you feel Tibetan culture can again flourish in Tibet itself or must it flourish in other parts of the world?
Question 2: My family came from China as refugees from World War II. I grew up here as a baby and married an American. I have often felt ashamed to be Chinese and not very American or too Chinese and too American. Through your teachings and studying with very kind Lamas, I have gained more confidence and inner peace. I would like to return my gratitude to the Tibetan community. How can I be truly kind and compassionate when I still hold a seed of disappointment in my heritage?
Question 3: How do you maintain such hope for Tibet over the long term? How does one maintain such hope and faith against such odds?
Question 4: How long will Tibetans remain peaceful, non-violent again the Chinese occupying Tibet? Where do you see the struggle in the future? Does karma have anything to do with the fact that the Tibetans are an oppressed people?
Question 5: What do you think is the most harmful misconception that Westerners might have about today or historically?
Question 6: What will you see or predict 10 years from now for Tibetans who live in and out of Tibet?
Question 7: My questions related to the dynamics of individual protest. What would be the most effective protest that I can do in my daily life against the action of the Chinese government? Secondly, help me to understand how that protest would be effective.
Question 8: Please explain the contradiction between your seeing greater autonomy for Tibet, providing a mutually beneficial co-existence within the framework of China and position by leaders of the Chinese government that you are splitting the so-called motherland of China and thereby regarding your Holiness as enemy #1 of the People's Republic of China?
Question 9: When you are facing death directly, what is the best action to take?
