New York, June 5—The 9-day Tibet Awareness Program at the Federal University of Santa Catarina in Florianopolis, South Brazil, concluded successfully on the evening of June 4th with the dismantling of intricate Sand Mandala created by Ven Tenzin Thutop of the Namgyal Monastery as well as the Brazilian writers/journalists’ interesting panel discussion on Tibet.
Three eminent Brazilian journalists/writers—Mr Airton Ortiz (an explorer, journalist and writer), Mr Harold Castro (a senior reporter of Brazil’s best known news magazine, Revista Epoca) and Luis Pellegrini (writer and director of the editorial staff of the news magazine, Revista Planeta)—took part in the discussion and shared their stories about exploration of Tibet and covering stories about it.
Earlier, Mr Robert Barnett, Assistant Professor of Contemporary Tibetan Studies and Director of Modern Tibetan Studies Program at Columbia University in New York, gave two very enlightening presentations on Tibet—the first on Tibet, China and Culture Renaissance and the second on China’s Underlying Strategy on Tibet.
Apart from the above, Prof Lia Diskin of Sao Paulo based Palas Athena Association, Lama Padma Samten of Porto Alegre based Centro de Estudos Budistas Bodisatva, Tsewang Phuntso, CTA’s Liaison Officer for Latin America, Tiffany H. Gyatso, a Brazilian Tibetan Thanka painter, and Ogen Shak, a lone Tibetan Thanka artist currently living in Brazil, gave their individual presentations on Tibet and Tibetan culture during the event.
Although the center of attraction of the event turned out to be the construction of Sand Mandala, the 9-day event also featured exhibition of photos on Tibet, the Missing Peace Arts, and Thanka paintings as well as screening of movies on Tibet.
“It was a memorable weekend. The construction and dismantling of the Sand Mandala was a very transformative event!”, commented Harold Castro, one of the panelists of the event.
Renata Palandri, a resident of Florianopolis, said: “I would like to thank and congratulate all the people involved in the organization of this wonderful event, especially for the quality of the lectures organized.”
The 9-day event was widely covered by both local and regional newspapers, radio and television channels.
“Choosing Florianopolis as a venue for the event was right choice”, said Luis Pellegrini. He aided that although the city is comparatively much smaller than Sao Paulo, it is now becoming an intellectual hub of Brazil because of its beautiful weather and unspoiled nature. Residents of the city, he said, could become important opinion makers in Brazil.
