The second annual Tibet Festival took place this past weekend on the UW-Madison campus to celebrate and share Tibetan culture with the Madison community.
The celebration began Friday with a grand opening ribbon cutting ceremony with Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz and ended Sunday.
Events took place at the Memorial Union, Library Mall and the Pyle Center, and included dances, lectures and documentaries.
A display of traditional dressings, exhibition of cultural artifacts and the creation of a sand mandala, a ritualistic art piece that symbolizes the Buddhist belief in the transitory state of material culture and made by a Tibetan monk, were also on display.
Tsering Kharitsang, Vice President of the Wisconsin Tibetan Association, encouraged people to explore Tibetan culture and said the goal of the festival is to share it with the Madison community.
""The festival shows we are different from China,"" she said. ""We have a traditional language, our own flag and our own culture.""
China has occupied Tibet since 1949, forcing the country's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, into exile and threatening Tibetan culture.
The Dalai Lama recently donated a $50,000 research grant to UW's Center for Investigating Healthy Minds. The CIHM studies development of positively-associated emotions, like happiness or compassion, and how to cultivate these emotions.
Dechen Wangmo, a Wisconsin Tibetan Association volunteer who grew up as a Tibetan displaced in India, said her experience empowered her to be vocal about the situation in Tibet.
""We are letting the world know about us through protest and events throughout the world,"" she said, ""but the Chinese have taken this as a way to punish the Tibetans that remain in Tibet.""
Much of Madison's Tibetan community participated in the festival, however, the turnout of other Madison citizens was not as large as hoped.
""I think we could do way better if the UW students and the Madison community knew more about the festival,"" Wangmo said.
The festival was made possible through the collaboration of the Wisconsin Tibet Association and UW-Madison's East Asian Studies Program.
