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BEGIN:VEVENT
UID:c5d87fc69b521c809fca1d05751706e2
CATEGORIES:Ad Hoc Events 
CREATED:20190516T112156
SUMMARY:Seminar on Tibet: Culture nationalism, human rights and self-immolation
DESCRIPTION;ENCODING=QUOTED-PRINTABLE:\n\n\nThe Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria, in partnership w
 ith Living Stories & Memories, cordially invites you to a Seminar on Ti
 bet: Culture nationalism, human rights and self-immolation. \n\n\nDown
 load Invitation\nBackground Archaeological evidence suggests that the 
 first people to reside in Tibet were pastoralists. By the 7th century, Tibe
 t emerged as a powerful nation in the world stage by unifying various tribe
 s and kingdoms. The people of Tibet developed a written language based on I
 ndian writing systems and used it to create their own forms of literature a
 nd poetry. One of the most important staples of this unified culture, howev
 er, was religion. The Tibetans followed a shamanistic religion called Bon. 
 It was one of the most important elements of their society. Religion would 
 continue to be a major factor in Tibetan life. During this period, Buddhism
  also entered Tibet from India. Over the next 200 years, Buddhism became po
 pular among the people, fused with some of the practices of Bon, and finall
 y emerged as a state-sponsored religion. Buddhist temples popped up all ove
 r Tibet and became the centres of religious, cultural, and intellectual lif
 e. \nBut by 27 February 2009, self-immolation also came to Tibet along
  with the repression and cultural genocide being perpetrated on Tibetans by
  the People’s Republic of China. The Tibetan authorities had just cancelled
  a Great Prayer Festival (Monlam) that was supposed to commemorate the vict
 ims of the government crackdown in 2008. A monk by the name of Tapey steppe
 d out of the Kirti Monastery and set his body alight on the streets of Ngaw
 a, in the region known in Tibetan as Amdo, a place of great religious rever
 ence and relevance, now designated as part of China’s Sichuan Province. At 
 least 152 other Tibetans have self-immolated since then. Of these, 147 did 
 so within Tibet, while the remaining five were living in exile. According t
 o the best information we have, 125 have died (including 122 within Tibet a
 nd three abroad). The oldest was sixty-four, and the youngest was sixteen.&
 nbsp;\nProgramme 12:30 - 12:40 Arrival and registration \n12:40 –
  12:50 Welcome and opening remarks \n12:50 – 13:00 Dr Antony Goedhals,
  Department of English, University of Pretoria \n13:00 – 13:15 Mrs Eli
 zabeth Gaywood, Chairperson, Tibet Society of South Africa \n13:15 – 1
 3:30 Mr Ngodup Dorjee, Tibet Representative to South Africa \n13:30 – 
 13:55 Questions and answers session \n13:55 – 14:00 Vote of thanks and
  close \nEvent information : Wednesday 27 May 2019 \n: 12:30
  – 14:00 \n: Room 2-27, Information Technology Building, University of
  Pretoria (Hatfield Campus) \nRSVP: Please confirm your attendance by 
 sending an email to dominique.mystris@up.ac.za \n
DTSTAMP:20260825T032656Z
DTSTART;TZID=Africa/Johannesburg:20190527T120000
DTEND;TZID=Africa/Johannesburg:20190527T143000
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