Published by: World Tibet Network News Saturday, October 25th, 1997

Hollywood Spotlights Tibet

By Barr Seitz ABCNEWS.com

Oct. 24 - As Chinese President Jiang Zemin tries to remake his image in America, Hollywood celebrities are vowing to cast him as the Terminator of Tibet during a series of protests. Richard Gere, a disciple of the Dalai Lama for two decades, will join one of the many demonstrations shadowing Jiang during his visit. And he'll host a "stateless dinner" with such luminaries as Harrison Ford and Sharon Stone while President Clinton fetes Jiang at the White House. The Dalai Lama may not have many political friends willing to take on China for the mountainous region, but the glitterati are clearly behind a Free Tibet. At least seven films about Tibet are in production or have just finished, the best known of which is

Brad Pitt's Seven Years in Tibet. And bands have gotten into the act, too: 100,000 people showed up last July in San Francisco for a Free Tibet concert featuring the Beastie Boys and Smashing Pumpkins. "The one thing that one can trust about the Tibetan cause is that it's non-violent, and it's long-term, and it's right," Gere said in an interview with the Knoxville News-Sentinel.

Spotlight on Tibet

The Hollywood spotlight has brought the remote Asian region to the forefront of American consciousness. "Membership has tripled in the past two years and we are going through another huge burst now," says John Ackerly, director of the campaign for Tibet. "Hollywood is making a huge difference." But Beijing remains unmoved, arguing, as it has for almost 40 years, that Tibet is in integral part of China and must submit to communist rule. And while President Clinton risked offending Beijing by meeting with the Dalai Lama at the White House, he's also made it clear that he won't jeopardize trade and arms control agreements with China by pressing too hard on human rights. "Sino-American relations are very important," says Melvyn Goldstein, director of the Center for Research on Tibet at Case-Western University. "They are not going to jeopardize it over Tibet."

And some experts feel Hollywood's efforts may be doing more harm than good. If Tibetans under Chinese rule feel emboldened by the international support, they may agitate for more freedom, only to find themselves utterly alone. "The Chinese have no trouble in smashing any feelings of independence they might have," says Leonard van der Kuijp, professor of Tibetan and Himalyan studies at Harvard University's Fairbanks Center. "They can do it with impunity and without repercussions, especially since the issue of human rights has been cut from the trade issues."

When Chinese troops killed dozens of Tibetans protesting for their rights

in 1987, the world did little more than stand by and wag a collective finger. Long Road For Dalai Lama The recent interest in Tibet has been a long time in coming. The Dalai Lama has been campaigning for Tibetan autonomy ever since chinese troops marched into the region to crush an uprising in 1959. The religious leader fled with a few thousand Tibetans to Darahmsala in northern India to try preserve a government-in-exile and an independent culture. Hopelessly overpowered by the Chinese, Tibet's spiritual leader turned abroad for support but found little at first. "The Dalai Lama couldn't even get a visa after Nixon and Kissinger opened relations with China," says John Ackerly, director of the Campaign for Tibet. Undaunted, he traveled the world preaching the cause of Tibetan autonomy. He gave leactures, set up schools, sponsored seminars. And along the way he found some useful converts, chief among them Richard Gere. They met during Gere's 1978 trip to Nepal. "When I first met him, I was a student of Buddh

ism," Gere said. "The sense of awe of being in his presence, being in the real thing's presence, was incredibly moving to me." Other stars who have joined the ranks of Tibetophiles include Stevan Seagal, Uma Thurman, Harrison Ford, Sharon Stone, Shirley MacLaine, the late Allen Ginsberg and Roy Lichtenstein, Henry Luce 3, Roy Philip Glass and Natalie Merchant.