Free Tibet Movement's Publicity

The movement for a significantly autonomous or fully independent Tibet is now decades old, and supporters have sought numerous avenues to publicize their cause globally. The government of the People's Republic of China (PRC) argues that Tibet has always been a part of China and that the first map showing it as separate was a British colonial map of India some 200 years back designed to further Britain's imperial sway. Many Tibetans and their worldwide supporters point to the highly distinctive character of Tibetan language, culture, and history, and to the PRC government's repression of open debate and demonstrations on the subject within Tibet and indeed within China at large.

In 1959, the Dalai Lama and many of his government ministers escaped into India. Prime Minister Nehru granted him and his entourage asylum in the remote mountain settlement of Dharamsala, close to Tibet's border. The then 24-year-old Dalai Lama's flight garnered much attention in Western media, which referred to him as the “God-King.”

Soon after his escape, the Dalai Lama established a government-in-exile in Dharamsala. He proceeded to contact world leaders and international news media about the occupation of his country by the People's Republic of China (PRC). The isolationist policies previously pursued, however, left the Dalai Lama and his ministers ill-positioned to negotiate modern diplomacy.

In the 1960s, political and media attention focused away from the Tibetan refugees for several reasons. When the Cultural Revolution began in the middle of the decade, Tibet's borders with Nepal and India were closed, and people and information coming out of Tibet significantly decreased. Simultaneously the cold war escalated, the Vietnam War expanded significantly, the civil rights and other U.S. social movements burgeoned, student movements exploded worldwide, and the news media had a full agenda.

In the early 1970s, President Nixon's 1972 visit with Mao Zedong and the subsequent Western move to a “one China” policy positioned the West less favorably to assist the Dalai Lama. Yet with no widespread support for the Free Tibet movement, there was little that the Tibetan refugees and their advocates could accomplish. Dharamsala's remoteness did not help.

Only in 1987, when pro-independence demonstrations erupted in Lhasa and stone-throwing demonstrators were met with semiautomatic gunfire, killing many, was there a shift. International media, mainly due to the presence of many foreign journalists in Lhasa at the time, covered the confrontation extensively. The PRC's violent response shocked and unified exiled Tibetans, their Western supporters, and many passive sympathizers. Soon afterward, a large number of organizations emerged working for Tibetan independence, or autonomy within the PRC. Among these were the Free Tibet Campaign (1987 founding), the International Campaign for Tibet (1988), and Students for a Free Tibet (1994).

More visible to the larger public, though, were the many celebrities (e.g., Richard Gere, Harrison Ford, Goldie Hawn, Julia Roberts, Sting, Björk, REM, and Adam Yauch) and movies (e.g., Seven Years in Tibet, Kundun) contributing to the movement for Tibet. Richard Gere was arguably the most vocal celebrity. In 1993, after making a speech during the Oscar ceremonies against Chinese policies in Tibet, Gere was banned as a presenter by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He also established the highly visible Gere Foundation, which provides grants for organizations working to preserve Tibet's culture.

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