The North American Tsokchen or the 4th North American Tibetan Youth Congress Conference (NATYC) was held in Tibet House, New York August 7th and 8th 2004. Delegates from five regions of North and South America were present during the conference. The Regional branches of Minnesota, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle and New York & New Jersey attended the NATYC ’04 Conference. The three regional branches of the Tibetan Youth Congress in Canada had to do away with the attendance in the conference this time. One special representative from the Indiana Tibetan Freedom Movement (ITFM) attended the conference as distinguished guests.
Mr. Phuntsok Thonden, Former Representative of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to America was invited as the Chief Guest of the Conference. Mr. Namgyal Shastri, Mr. Karma Gyaltso Zurkhang and Mrs. Yangchen Dolma, three former executive of Centrex were invited as the special guest of the Conference. Besides, members Tibetan Community of New York and New Jersey, Regional Tibetan Women’s Association, Tibet Fund, former executive members of Centrex and Regional Tibetan Youth Congress and Representatives from the Himalayan Region were invited to attend the Conference.
Executive members from all the branches Regional Tibetan Youth Congress engaged themselves in the Conference with zeal and the spirit of participation to discuss the agenda on Politics, Democracy, Culture and Organization, in person with other compatriots.
Mr. Karma Gyaltso Zurkhang, former Executive member of Centrex, presented a glimpse on the Political Scenario of Tibetan Exile Government before topics on Politics was discussed in the conference, while Mr. Namgyal Shasti spoke on Democracy and Organization and Mrs. Yanchen Lhamo spoke on Culture. Ven, Pema Dorjee, a teacher and a founder of the Tibetan Sunday School of New York and a former board member of Tibetan Community of New York and New Jersey presented a detail account of his experience as a teacher in the school since it inception on July 6th 1997. The school first had 7 children and today it has 137 children and children of Himalayan region also attend the school. He also spoke on School’s role in preserving and maintaining the unique culture, heritage and religion in the Tibetan children in the United States.
The conference concluded with the passing of Resolution and pledge from all delegates to implement and put into practice the agenda that were finalized during this function. Some of the critical and some most important points recollected in the conference
includes – It was also affirmed that there will be no change in the principle stand of TYC and that we will do anything possible to bring into fruition our commitments. Considering the threat posed for the survival of Tibet’s environment and Tibetan people’s culture and race as a result of China’s so-called Western Development Program; Considering the opportunity presented by China’s hosting of 2008 Olympics in Beijing; Considering China’s failure to positively respond to the sincere efforts of the Tibetan Government-In-Exile to resolve the issue of Tibet through meaningful dialogues, what political campaigns can be jointly launched by the members of the Tibetan Youth Congress based in the North America? What actions should be taken by the members of the Tibetan Youth Congress based in the North America in order to facilitate the Tibetan people in general to shoulder more serious responsibility to expedite the pace of democratization in the community and particularly to make the election of the members of the Assembly of Tibetan People’s Deputies and Kalon more effective and meaningful? How the members of the Tibetan Youth Congress based in the North America can support the work of the Sunday Schools (and start the same in areas where they don’t have “Sunday School”) in order to facilitate the Tibetan children born or raised in the North America to learn about the essence of the Buddhism, Tibetan Culture and value systems? What actions can be undertaken to strengthen the activities and network of the Tibetan Youth Congress branches in the North America and how can we improve communications among the branches?
Toronto, Canada or Portland, Oregon would be the venue of probability for the 5th North American Tibetan Youth Congress ’05.
