Reported by Ngawang Choechen
Raleigh (North Carolina): May 08: North Carolina, a beautiful state of mountains, lakes and forests with year round mild climate in the south eastern region of the United States, has recently seen a growing awareness on Tibet, its people and their history, religion, culture and their struggle for freedom.
Kadampa Buddhist Centre of Venerable Zopa Rinpoche, located here, today screened two Tibetan documentary films at a local cinema hall here in Raleigh, the capital of North Carolina. The first documentary was, Satya: A Prayer for the Enemy.
The film focuses on the personal testimonies of some of the Tibetan nuns giving specific instances of religious oppression and human rights abuses in their country by the Chinese authorities.
Geshey Gelek Chodak, the resident teacher of the Centre introduced the documentary. He said that since the communist Chinese occupation of Tibet more than a million Tibetans have been tortured, executed or starved to death for their role in peaceful demonstrations against the Chinese occupation. Among them, Tibetan Buddhist nuns have taken one of the lead roles in the resistance movement by staging peaceful protests for religious and political freedom and countless of them have been imprisoned, and many were either tortured to death or were released on medical parole as a result of excessive torture.
The second documentary was, Sky Burial, a sacred Tibetan death ritual performed at the Drigung Monastery in northern Tibet. Geshey Chodak la explained about the second documentary also.
A large audience has turned up to watch the two films.
The shows were later followed by a question and answer, and discussion session, which was moderated by Geshey la and other members of the Centre.
Some of them participants appealed the audience to support the Tibetan cause. One of the viewers even mentioned about the forthcoming Olympic game in China as a viable ground for doing something concrete for the Tibetan cause.
Recently, the centre has also organised a series of Buddhist teachings and empowerments, which were attended regularly by a large number of Tibetan Buddhist followers.
With a bigger a bigger building complex for the centre, the Kadampa centre offer a well stocked library on Tibetan Buddhism and has programmes such as Buddhist teachings, talk sessions and children’s programmes on Tibetan Buddhism.
Another event taken in North Carolina was participation of an eleventh grade Tibetan student, Tenzin Dekyi in an international festival in her school here in Raleigh, in March this year.
Last year, Cognizance Association Tibet has observed the birthday of His Holiness the Dalai Lama with a variety of programmes. Prior to that, the Association in collaboration with Kadampa Centre organised a Tibetan Cultural programme by inviting Tibetan artists from Minnesota and West Coast.
There is now a visibly growing awareness on Tibet in North Carolina and it is all due to increasing number of Tibetan related events taking place here.
North Carolina, the 10th largest state in population in the US, has a potential Presidential candidate for 2008 US Presidential election.
All it now takes to push a momentum to this growing awareness is a much awaited visit by the exiled Tibetan leader, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and a handful of Tibetan community here are very much hopeful of one in near future.
