Five remarkable individuals were presented with the International Campaign for Tibet’s Light of Truth Award by His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Switzerland on Saturday (April 13, 2013) for their outstanding contributions to the Tibetan cause.
They included 90-year old Mr. Robert Ford, who witnessed China’s invasion of Tibet and had his first audience with His Holiness the Dalai Lama who was then 11-years old. Two of the award winners, Professor Dr. Christian Schwarz-Schilling and Professor Theo van Boven, cited their experience of living under foreign occupation and oppression in Europe when young as the reason for their support of Tibet’s freedom struggle. The other awardees were The International Commission of Jurists, which has produced ground-breaking reports on Tibet, and Ms. Sigrid Joss-Arnd, in recognition of the important role of the Swiss Red Cross when Tibetan refugees began flowing out of Tibet in the 1960s.
The Light of Truth Award recipients were each presented with a Tibetan butter-lamp, which represents the light they have shed on the Tibetan cause, in a moving private ceremony in Fribourg, Switzerland, where the Dalai Lama was giving Tibetan Buddhist teachings.
Mary Beth Markey, President of the International Campaign for Tibet, said: “The international footprint of the Light of Truth Award, represented this year by honorees from the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Uruguay, Germany, and the Netherlands, is testimony to humankind’s common response to injustice. The awardees’ lifetimes of experience give further testimony to the importance of determination, endurance and truth in countering injustice and oppression.”
At the award ceremony, His Holiness the Dalai Lama paid tribute to each individual recipient of the Light of Truth award saying “All of you have been long-standing friends and supporters of Tibet, for which we are immeasurably grateful. As you know, the spirit of the Tibetan people is undiminished and the power of truth remains strong.” He said that the closed, authoritarian society under the Chinese Communist Party could not be sustained into the future but the Tibetan spirit “will carry on from generation to generation.” There was laughter when, referring the age of the group of award-winners who were mainly of his generation, the Dalai Lama said that if such change took too long, then perhaps “This group will not see it, but if it happens [sooner] then maybe you will when you are in a wheelchair.”
The private award ceremony was followed by a public reception hosted by the International Campaign for Tibet. Professor Jan Andersson, Executive Chairman of the ICT Board of Directors in Germany and Vice-Chairman of the ICT Europe Board, welcomed the guests saying: “This award signifies gratitude to those who have devoted their work to supporting the Tibetan people in various ways out of a sense of responsibility for the well-being and the rights of fellow human beings.”
Sikyong Dr. Lobsang Sangay, head of the Central Tibetan Administration since 2011, was ICT’s special guest at the reception, offering congratulations and “heartfelt gratitude” to the International Campaign for Tibet, the Light of Truth Award honorees, and friends across the globe for their generous support to Tibet. Dr. Sangay spoke at length about Tibetan democracy in exile, stressing the Dalai Lama’s commitment to government reform, the extreme lengths Tibetans have gone to in order to participate in the election process in exile, and the fact that there was a woman in the Tibetan exile parliament from 1963, “long before there was such representation even in Switzerland.”
ICT’s Light of Truth Award is the most prestigious award in the Tibet movement and has been presented over the years by His Holiness the Dalai Lama on behalf of ICT. Previous recipients include Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the late Václav Havel, Chinese scholar and writer Wang Lixiong, Elie Wiesel, Martin Scorsese and the people of India.