News Release
For Immediate Release
Canada Tibet Committee releases video message from the Dalai Lama
(Montreal, Saturday, 23 August 2008) – The Tibetan spirit remains “very, very alive,” declared His Holiness the Dalai Lama in a never before seen video released by the Canada Tibet Committee (CTC) today. The Dalai Lama’s message serves as a poignant testament that despite its oppressive policies, the government of China has failed to extinguish the Tibetan culture and spirit.
In his remarks, the Dalai Lama states: “Since we became refugees one of our top concerns is to keep Tibetan culture (alive). With confidence we can keep that. Our spirit, our Tibetan spirit, deeply rooted spirit, not easy to change, to forget, already demonstrated. Tibetans inside Tibet – under difficult circumstances – they’re really showing our 1,000 year old Tibetan spirit; even those Tibetan communists and those Tibetan students who are completely isolated from the Tibetan community and speak Chinese. But the Tibetan spirit (is) very, very alive.”
The Dalai Lama’s comments passionately speak to the ultimate failure of the Chinese government’s policies regarding Tibet and underscore why substantive talks over Tibet’s future within China are so crucial, according to the CTC.
“The Olympic Games were a stepping stone along the path to a substantive resolution of the Tibet question,” said CTC Executive Director Dermod Travis. “But they were only a stepping stone. Tomorrow, Tibetans and their supporters worldwide will continue the work to bring freedom to the Tibetan people living within China.”
The Dalai Lama’s timely remarks were originally recorded during his visit to Ottawa last October and were just made available to the CTC by Makila Productions. The short doc can be viewed at www.tibet.ca. Makila will be releasing a feature documentary on the Dalai Lama’s 2007 visit to Canada later this year.
The Canada Tibet Committee is an independent non-governmental organisation of Tibetans and non-Tibetans living in Canada, who are concerned about the continuing human rights violations and lack of democratic freedom in Tibet.
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Citizen Tenzin trailer (minutes)
For more information:
Dermod Travis
514.487.0665 / Cell: 514.927.3144