Wherever I am, the world comes after me. It offers me its busyness. It does not believe that I do not want it. Now I understand why the old poets of China went so far and high into the mountains, then crept into the pale mist. "The Old Poets of China" by Mary Oliver
The Tibetan Struggle: Search for Freedom and Justice | A Public Lecture
The Tibetan Struggle: Search for Freedom and Justice | A Public Lecture
Details
The UP Asian Center will hold the public lecture "The Tibetan Struggle: Search for Freedom and Justice" on 23 October 2024, from 2:00 to 4:00 PM, at the Seminar Room, UP Asian Center, University of the Philippines Diliman. The event is free and open to the public. Online pre-registration is recommended due to limited seating.
ABOUT THE LECTURE
Tibet has been an independent nation with a rich history and culture since ancient times. It lies north of India and Nepal, south of Mongolia, and west of China. It was a strong military empire in the 8th and 9th centuries. It even attacked and occupied the Chinese capital Chagan, present-day Xian. However, with the advent of Buddhism in Tibet, Tibet adopted peace and non-violence and gave up military conquest. Tibetan lamas (priests) and monks played an important role in bringing peace between the warring neighbors of Mongolia, Manchu, and China. Unfortunately, when the communist took over China in 1949, it invaded Tibet and in 1959 the Tibetan leader H.H. the Dalai Lama and many Tibetans took refuge in India, Nepal, and Bhutan. With the help of India and the international community, the Dalai Lama established the Tibetan government in exile in India. Some nations, including the Philippines, supported Tibet in the United Nations. Today, even after more than 70 years of brutal occupation and indoctrination by China, Tibet remains an international issue and the Tibetan people are struggling for freedom and justice in their homeland.
Dr. Tsewang Gyalpo Arya will discuss the state of relations and issues between Tibet and China, and how the Tibetan struggle is associated with world peace. He will later invite questions from the audience.
Dr. Tsewang Gyalpo Arya is the Representative of the Liaison Office of H.H. the Dalai Lama for Japan and East Asia. He is a senior bureaucrat at the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) currently located in India, where he served in various capacities, including the Secretary of the Office of Tibet, Japan, and the Bureau of H.H. the Dalai Lama in New Delhi. He is the former Secretary of the Department of Information and International Relations (DIIR) and former Director of the Tibet Policy Institute (TPI), the official think tank of the CTA. In May 2020, he was appointed the Representative of the Office of Tibet for Japan and East Asia.
T.G. Arya obtained his BA from Panjab University; MA in Economics from Annamalai University; MA Japanese Studies from Delhi University; and a diploma in International Trade and economics from Chiyoda College of Business, Tokyo. He earned his Ph.D. from the Department of Buddhist Studies, University of Delhi. His research interests are on Tibetan and Asian history, culture, and religion.
AARON JED RABENA, Ph.D. Asian Center, University of the Philippines Diliman
Aaron Jed Rabena, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor at the Asian Center, University of the Philippines Diliman and a Visiting Scholar at the Taiwan Center for Security Studies (TCSS), National Chengchi University (NCCU) in Taipei. He had served as a Non-Resident Fellow at the Pacific Forum in Hawaii and a Visiting Fellow at the China Institute of International Studies (CIIS), China Foreign Affairs University (CFAU) and ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore. He is also a Pacific Forum Young Leaders and an alumnus of the East-West Center (EWC), the US State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP), and the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies (DKI-APCSS). Jed obtained his Ph.D. in International Relations from Shandong University in China and has an Executive Education in Risk Management from the Asian Institute of Management (AIM). His areas of interest include Strategic Studies, Greater East Asian Geopolitics and Multilateral Politics, Political Risk, Maritime Security, and Chinese Politics and Foreign Policy.
MARIA CECILIA T. MEDINA, Ph.D. Asian Center, University of the Philippines Diliman
Maria Cecilia T. Medina, Ph.D. is currently an Associate Professor at the UP Asian Center, and Associate Editor of Social Sciences Diliman. She is also an affiliate faculty of the UP Open University. She had previously served as the head of the secretariat and coordinator of the Tri-College PhD Philippine Studies Program of the University of the Philippines-Diliman and was Assistant to the Dean for Administration, Public and Cultural Affairs at the UP Asian Center. She is a regular member of the National Research Council of the Philippines (NRCP), currently the Vice President of the Philippine Sociological Society (PSS), Board member of the Philippine Social Science Council (PSSC), a member of the International Sociological Association (ISA) and active in its Research Committees on Sociology of Religion and Sociology of Disasters. She is also a lifetime member of the Pi Gamma Mu International Honor Society in the Social Sciences and Phi Kappa Phi International Honor Society for Academic Excellence. Her publications and research interests are on Asian religions and cultures, Indigenous Peoples and Ethnic relations, Disaster and Southeast Asian Studies. She is currently president of Josefa Segovia Foundation, the social action arm of the Teresian Association in the Philippines assisting indigenous communities in Davao City.
ABOUT THE ORGANIZERS
The public lecture is organized by the Asian Center, University of the Philippines Diliman, and the Office of the Third District Representative of Zamboanga del Norte, House of Representatives through Representative Adrian Amatong.
For inquiries, please contact us atThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call 891-8500 loc. 3586.
The Asian Center, University of the Philippines Diliman offers M.A. degrees in Asian Studies with four fields of specialization: Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and West Asia. The UP Asian Center also has an M.A. program in Philippine Studies that allows students to major in Philippine society and culture, Philippine foreign relations, or Philippine development studies. It also offers a Ph.D. program in Philippine Studies in conjunction with the College of Arts and Letters and the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy. For an overview of these graduate programs, click here. As an area studies institution, the Asian Center also publishes Asian Studies: Journal of Critical Perspectives on Asia, the latest issue of which can be downloaded at the journal's website.
