The first Tibetan Freedom Concert was held in San Francisco in 1996, and concerts were hosted for the next three years, and in 2001 and 2003.
"People outside didn't necessarily really know what was happening inside, but Tibetans inside were aware of this global support."
"People outside didn't necessarily really know what was happening inside, but Tibetans inside were aware of this global support," Tethong said. "The Dalai Lama has the Nobel Peace Prize. People in Hollywood and people in positions of power, in these foreign governments, speak up for us. They knew that. And so, it was for all of us an incredible morale boost, and it helped us to solidify a kind of Tibet support ... And so that movement gave rise to what we have now, which is Tibetan-led, active grassroots movement."
Other high-profile protests occurred in the lead-up to the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Tethong, then the executive director of Students for a Free Tibet, snuck into China and organized protests on the Great Wall and at Mount Everest. She said social media helped Tibetan protesters inside Tibet.
"Using their social media profiles, they were using it sort of everywhere and even making videos where they were saying and it was very political, the statement, 'I am Tibetan, and I love Tibet,'" she said. "But it was creative in that it was harder for the Chinese government to crack down on them because in a way, what they were saying was not supposedly against the law or bad."
Riot police drag a Tibetan monk to a police vehicle after he was detained for protesting outside the Chinese embassy in Kathmandu on April 1, 2008. Dozens of Tibetan monks and activists were detained after shouting anti-China slogans and yelling "Free Tibet" in Kathmandu. Credit: Adrees Latif/Reuters
President Donald Trump signed the Reciprocal Access to Tibet Act in December 2018. The law instructs the state department to deny visas to Chinese officials who restrict Americans from traveling into Tibet.
"It encapsulated the bipartisan view that the United States should continue to support the Tibetan people because it was an issue of freedom of religion, because it was an issue of human rights and cultural autonomy, but also because it was an issue of supporting democracy," explained Sarah Sewell, who served as the special coordinator on Tibetan issues during the Obama administration. Her position at the State Department has not been filled by the Trump administration.
"Increasingly, we see that countries that have typically spoken out on behalf of Tibet are now shying away from doing so."
Sarah Sewell, special coordinator on Tibetan issues during the Obama administration
"Increasingly, we see that countries that have typically spoken out on behalf of Tibet are now shying away from doing so," Sewell said. "Heads of state, leaders of parliament, are more reluctant to meet with His Holiness the Dalai Lama. This means that the symbolic act of visibly, for example, having the president or the secretary of state welcome His Holiness the Dalai Lama into official meeting rooms is really important diplomatic symbolism. That's absent right now."
Sewell says the US has been silent recently on any issues relating to Tibet, except the passing of the Reciprocal Access law by Congress. "Congress " has essentially provided that legislation to the Trump administration," she said. "Many people had been working for some time on reciprocity because people can't travel to the Tibet Autonomous Region, whereas, the Chinese have enormous freedom within the United States, so the law's a good thing. It's just that it comes from Congress, not from the executive branch. And there are many things that the Congress cannot do. The Congress cannot make the president of the United States meet with His Holiness the Dalai Lama."
US President Bill Clinton met the Dalai Lama at the White House on Nov. 10, 1998. Clinton saw the Buddhist leader in defiance of Beijing's wishes. President Donald Trump has not signaled whether he would meet with the Dalai Lama. Credit: Stringer/Reuters
"At this point, we don't even have the moral leadership of pointing out the importance of this issue. We aren't engaging the Chinese in a public way on these issues."
"But there's a huge difference between remaining silent and stating positions," she said. "At this point, we don't even have the moral leadership of pointing out the importance of this issue. We aren't engaging the Chinese in a public way on these issues."
A group of people watch the Tibetan flag on a flagpole surrounded by the historic buildings of downtown BostonThe group of activists watches the Tibetan flag fly in downtown Boston.
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