CITY OF ITHACA (NY) PROCLAME THE TEN OF MARCH TIBET DAY

Whereas, some 125,000 Tibetans live in exile, while human rights violations continue to this day in Tibet, China has destroyed over 6,000 monasteries and universities and literally hundreds of Tibetans are detained and often tortured as political prisoners of conscience in Tibet and a total of 1.2 million Tibetans have now died under Chinese occupation; and

Whereas, both economic and religious freedom are widely suppressed in Tibet, most recently illustrated very dramatically by the disappearance at the hands of the Chinese of the young boy selected by the Dalai Lama to be the next Panchen Lama, the second highest ranking Buddhist spiritual leader in the country; and

Whereas, March 10th is the anniversary of the great spontaneous uprising of the Tibetan national people in support of His Holiness the XIVth Dalai Lama against the illigal occupation of the Tibet by China, a reported 87,000 Tibetans were killed during that time in central Tibet alone, and the Dalai Lama was forced to flee India along with over 80,000 Tibetans; and

Whereas over 1,000 Tibetans have emigrated to the U.S. including 20 Tibetans who moved to Ithaca in 1992-93 as part of the original Tibetan Resettlement Project, a model immigration program that used to public funds; and

Wheares, Tibetans have contributed greatly to the local multi-cultural environment that uniquely characterizes Ithaca, through establishment of the annual Week of Tibet each November through frequent public appearances and Namgyal Monastery, the personal monastery of His Holiness the XIVth Dalai Lama of Tibet, has chosen Ithaca as the site for its only branch outside of the Dharamsala, in part out of recognition of the great reception afforded His Holiness on his two visits to Ithaca, including his visit to Cornell in 1991 that attraced the largest crowd ever to see the Dalai Lama outside of Asia; and

Now, therefore, I, Alan J. Cohen, Mayor of the City of Ithaca, New York, do hereby proclaim March 10, 1996 as

T I B E T A N N A T I O N A L D A Y

out of recognition of the continued suffering of the Tibetan people and their just cause for freedom which they pursue non-violently under the leadership of His Holiness the XVIth Dalai Lama, winner of the Nobel Prize for Peace.

In Witness Where of, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the great seal of the City of Ithaca to be affixed this the 1st day of March, 1996.