Santa Barbara Tibet Day Celebrated with Flag Raising Outside County Administration Building

On the 63rd anniversary of the national uprising of Tibetan people against China, the Santa Barbara Summit for Tibet and Santa Barbara Friends of Tibet raised the Tibetan flag outside the Santa Barbara County Administration Building on March 10.

Thepo Tulku, a Tibetan Lama and co-founder of the Summit of Tibet, spoke about the impact of China’s occupation. China invaded and began occupying Tibet in 1950, and though the uprising of 1959 was able to help the current Dalai Lama escape to India and seek asylum, more than one million Tibetan people have been killed and 98 percent of monasteries and nunneries destroyed under China’s rule. Tulku compared the atrocities in Tibet to similar situations with China’s treatment of the Uyghurs, and Russia’s treatment of Ukraine. “Just as Ukraine is being invaded by Russia, we must remember China did the same thing 70 years ago to Tibet,” he said.

County Supervisor Das Williams also spoke briefly at the flag-raising ceremony, presenting Tulku with a resolution proclaiming March 10 as Tibet Day in Santa Barbara County. Williams also presented the resolution in 2021. Other speakers at the event included Julia Hamilton, a local activist and lead minister of the Unitarian Society of Santa Barbara, and Nancy Martin, the education chairperson for the United Nations Santa Barbara and Tri-County chapter. 

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