California’s Richmond City Council declares March 10 as Tibetan Uprising Day

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The Mayor of Richmond City of California, Tom Butt on Thursday (local time) declared March 10 as the Tibetan Uprising Day.

The move comes on the occasion of the 63rd anniversary of the Tibetan National Uprising Day. “Richmond City Council does hereby declare March 10, 2022, as Tibetan Uprising Day in the City of Richmond and invites community members to attend the virtual Tibetan flag-raising ceremony being held on March 9, 2022, at 10:00 am to commemorate the 63rd anniversary of the Tibetan uprising,” read the proclamation of City of Richmond, signed by Mayor Butt.

The City of Richmond is home to the Tibetan Association of Northern California’s community center and serves the third-largest Tibetan community in the United States, a vibrant community that has contributed to the diversity of our culture and tradition.
The City has long supported the Tibetan people, having welcomed His Holiness the Dalai Lama when he visited the Tibetan Community Center in 2014 and has renamed a part of Huntington Avenue to Dalai Lama Avenue in honor of his 84th birthday, added Mayor Butt.

The City of Richmond stands in solidarity with the Tibetan people and their just, peaceful, and non-violent movement to remind the world of the occupation, suppression, and degradation of culture, religion, land, and identity of the Tibetan people by China, said the proclamation.

On March 10, 1959, the Tibetan people revolted against the brutal occupation of their homeland by the communist Chinese forces. For Tibetans in exile, March 10 every year marks the anniversary of the Tibetan National Uprising.

In the 1959 Tibetan uprising, tens of thousands of Tibetans took to the streets of Lhasa, Tibet’s capital, against the People’s Republic of China’s illegal invasion, occupation, suppression of human rights and freedom, and intentional marginalization of Tibetan language, culture, and identity.

Moreover, the 2019 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices in China published by the United States Department of State asserts, “Significant human rights issues included: forced disappearances; torture; arbitrary detention; political prisoners; censorship and website blocking; substantial interference with the rights of peaceful assembly and freedom of association; severe restrictions on religious freedom; severe restrictions on freedom of movement; and restrictions on political participation,” read the proclamation.

In December of 2020, the United States Congress passed, and the President signed into law, the Tibet Policy and Support Act, making it official policy that the Dalai Lama’s succession is strictly a religious issue that only he and his followers can decide on, strengthening the Tibetan Policy Act of 2002.

The Act also addressed water security and environmental destruction in Tibet, providing humanitarian assistance for Tibetans, and pushing China to negotiate with the Dalai Lama and Tibetan leaders without preconditions.