March 2008 Newsletter from
The Dalai Lama Foundation

Turmoil in Tibet

The George Lucas Educational Foundation
-Providing online information and inspiration for teachers

The Missing Peace sets sail for Japan

Meet Project Happiness in April at Seeds of Compassion

Turmoil in Tibet

(map from BBC.CO.UK)

Beginning on March 10th, on the anniversary of the Tibetan uprising of 1959, a series of demonstrations and protests occurred all over Tibet. They have been quite unusual in that large numbers of Tibetans from all walks of life and age groups, not just monks and nuns, have come out, and the protests have spread beyond Lhasa and the official Tibetan Autonomous Region to concentrations of Tibetan population in the Chinese provinces of Qinghai, Kansu and Szechuan, including Beijing, where Tibetan students made their feelings known.

The immediate crackdown has resulted in many deaths - official Chinese government figures are in the dozens while Tibetan reports take it beyond one hundred - and hundreds have been arrested.

The outside world is being shut out due to the expulsion of reporters and the interruption of or interference with services such as phone, Internet, and radio.

The Tibetan people have spoken out fully aware of the potential severity of the Chinese reaction; imprisonment, torture, and even death. If not for their political courage, we can at least acknowledge their desperation in declaring to the Chinese their strong desire for greater freedoms and their loyalty to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and lend whatever individual support we can provide.

(AP photo on BBC.CO.UK)

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The George Lucas Educational Foundation (GLEF), was founded in 1991 as a nonprofit operating foundation to celebrate and encourage innovation in schools. Since that time they have been documenting, disseminating and advocating for exemplary programs in K-12 (ages 5-18) public schools. GLEF which has a big "digital media" focus, provides many resources and sources of inspiration for teachers.

GLEF focuses on project-based learning, technology integration, teacher development, social emotional learning, assessment, addressing parents as well as teachers. There are more than 150 short documentary video pieces available on the site that speak to parents, students and volunteers in the educational systems world-wide. It allows one to participate as a member of an online community actively working to reinvent schools for the twenty first century.

Social Emotional Learning (SEL) is an important part of what's going on in schools and in the educational community as a whole these days. The Dalai Lama Foundation's mission includes education for ethics and peace, and since SEL focuses on discovery of self, leading to greater harmony with those around you, we hope that you find the GLEF site as inspirational as we do.

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Following a successful showing in San Francisco, The Missing Peace: Artists Consider the Dalai Lama is headed for a three-week showing in Tokyo, Japan beginning October 17, 2008. More information from Tokyo is available online. And then in April-May, 2009, the exhibition will travel to Zurich, Switzerland.

A photographic record of our community-based participatory artwork Making Peace remains online - and even better, you can still add your own photos and words. We intend to begin a new Making Peace for each location the exhibition visits.

And as always, you can view the exhibition “virtually” online where you can view most of the artworks along with information about each of the artists and their contribution to the exhibition. Many of the descriptions include links to the artist’s website. Join us online, then join us in Japan or Switzerland!

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Meet Project Happiness in April at Seeds of Compassion

If you’re attending Seeds of Compassion in Seattle next month, we invite you to meet the Project Happiness team and become a part of our ongoing digital video record. You’ll find Project Happiness will be in the exhibitions areas on these dates: Saturday, April 12, 2008, Qwest Event Center, and Sunday, April 13, and Monday, April 14, Seattle Center Exhibition Hall.

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