Published by: World Tibet Network News, Tuesday, Mar 12, 1996

From: VENTUL@Darwin.Stanford.EDU

Berkeley, Mon, 11 Mar 1996 -- The city of Berkeley, California, USA, raised the Tibetan flag on the city flag pole at 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Berkeley, on March 10, 1996 to express solidarity with the Tibetans who observed the 37th anniversary of Tibetan National Uprising Day on the same day.

The flag was raised at 9:00 in the morning. Members of the Tibetan community and Tibet supporters gathered near the flag pole for the flag raising ceremony. The Tibetans sang the Tibetan national anthem when the flag was being raised. They also chanted Dhentsig Monlam prayer. There was 2 minutes of silence in memory of the Tibetans who lost their lives as a result of the Chinese occupation of Tibet.

City council member Carla Woodworth, who brought this idea before the city council as a resolution, also attended the flag raising ceremony. Paolo Tuzzi from the Transnational Radical Party gave a short speech supporting the Tibetan struggle.

Ventul Rinpoche, Acting President, Tibetan Association of Northern California