~ Recent Events ~

Human Rights Day

To mark Human Rights Day on Wednesday, 10 December, Tibet Support Group Grampian, together with the Aberdeen Branch of Amnesty International, mounted a day-long campaign in the Aberdeen Trinity Centre mall to gather signatures on greetings cards to be sent to Prisoners of Conscience around the world.

TSGG collected nearly 200 signatures on four cards - two cards for the Tibetan film maker, Dhondup Wangchen, and two for the Tibetan religious leader,Tenzin Deleg Rinpoche. Dhondup Wangchen was arrested in March of this year for recording the views of Tibetans about the Dalai Lama, China and the Olympics. He has been tortured in prison, and access to him denied. His film 'Leaving Fear Behind' will be shown by TSGG in the New Year Tenzin Deleg Rinpoche was imprisoned in April 2002 on false charges and without a fair trial. He was originally sentenced to death, but this has been commuted to life imprisonment.

Thanks go to the Trinity Centre management for allowing this, the first event of its kind in the mall.



Sunday, 28 September 2008

An afternoon of Music

The Loft, Forres



  Contact: Pam Milne, Tel: 01467 620606.


An afternoon of Folk, Bluegrass, Country, Scottish and Irish Ballads will be held on Sunday 28th September at 3.00pm by ‘Moonshine Madness’  at The Loft, Forres. Proceeds from the event will go to the Gu-Chu-Sum school for Tibetan ex-political prisoners in Dharamsala, India.

The event is being organized by Tibet Support Group Grampian. Tickets are £5, children free, and are available on the door or from the Music Shop, Inverness; Music Centre, Forres; Sound and Vision, Elgin or www.thebooth.co.uk

A similar event was held last year when the Tibet Support Group Grampian raised £300. The Gu Chu Sum school at that time was in danger of closing. Thankfully, it is still open. Gu Chu Sum is an incredible organisation which provides housing, medical assistance, counselling and support for Tibetan ex-political prisoners and their family members in exile. The event on Sunday is raising money for their school in Dharamsala, India, which teaches and supports Tibetans, often Buddhist monks and nuns who have faced years of imprisonment and torture for peacefully protesting for their human rights in occupied Tibet. With scarce funds, the Gu Chu Sum school not only educates its students, but also gives them accommodation and food and empowers them with practical skills to find employment and self-reliance within their community. (See: www.guchusum.org for more details of their work).

All the proceeds this Sunday will be sent through Tibet Relief Fund to the school, to raise urgently needed funds for student accommodation, basic school materials and utilities. The band, Moonshine Madness, are kindly playing for free and The Loft has been kindly donated for the afternoon by the owner, Greg Butler. 

For more information about the event, please contact Pam Milne on 01467 620606, or by email.



Photo taken outside the Gu Chu Sum school earlier this year, features some students from the class of 2007-2008 with their teacher.

Sunday 29 June

Annual Sponsored Walk


Annual sponsored walk: Forest of Birse - Carnferg - Glen Cat.

Meet at the Ballochan car park at the end of the Forest of Birse road (OS
map 44, GR 532906) at 10.30am for a 10.45am start. The last four miles of
the road leading to this car park are single track with passing places, so
allow extra driving time. Bring a picnic lunch.

The circular route, all on good tracks, is about 8 miles. We hope to have
lunch on the summit of Carnferg, and anticipate returning to the start
point at about 3.30 to 4.00 pm. Tea afterwards (optional) in the Feughside
Inn, just W of Strachan.

Further details: tel 01224 314127 or 01330 822280



Tuesday 1 April.

Illustrated Talk by Dr Martin Mills:

"The Tibetan Protest Movement: 1987-Now"


"Dr. Martin Mills, Tibet specialist & Co-Director of the Scottish Centre
for Himalayan Research, will examine the religious and political roots of
the Tibetan protest movement, both inside and outside Tibet, over the last
20 years."

Aberdeen University Chaplaincy Centre (entry by rear door in Elphinstone
Road), Uupper Hall; 7.30pm The talk will be followed by refreshments and a
TSGG planning meeting. Free entry; all welcome.


Friday 4thApril about 7.00p.m.

 St. John’s Church, West End of Princes Street, Edinburgh :

The 'Singing Nuns'


 Also just notified, six of the fourteen “Singing Nuns” who served long sentences in Drapchi Prison
 are undertaking a UK tour 8th March-4th April. Edinburgh is the only Scottish venue.
 They are being hosted by the Scottish Parliament Cross Party Group at 1.30p.m,
 and then will speak and give a public performance of their songs at St. John’s in the evening.
 On Sunday 6th April the nuns will be in London as the Olympic Torch will be paraded on that day.


Saturday 5 April, 11.00am - 3.00pm.

St Nicholas Street, Aberdeen,

Campaign Stall


The Olympic torch will be in London on Sunday 6 April on its international
tour. Simultaneously in London, a Tibetan Freedom Torch will be lit and
carried by Team Tibet athletes and four of the singing nuns. To mark this
event, TSGG will have a stall with information and a petition outside M &S .
 If you can help on the stall - even for a short time - please contact Liz and Dave.



Talk

Manjushree Orphanage, N.E. India


Tuesday 13 November 2007, 7.30pm, Chaplaincy Centre
(enter by rear door in Elphinstone Road)

At our regular meeting next Tuesday one of our  members, Linda Stormonth,
will be giving an illustrated talk about her recent visit to Manjushree
Orphanage, N.E. India. It was almost exactly a year ago that we had an
inspiring talk from Di Gallagher about the orphanage. At that talk we
collected £80 to donate to the orphanage, and we were able to make a
further donation of £150 in the spring of this year. Linda will now be
able to update us on Manjushree, with stories and pictures. 

Refreshments will be available after Linda's talk, followed by our regular
'planning' meeting -  future events/campaigns, etc.

Exhibition: Journey into Exile

1 - 21 December 2007, Aberdeen Arts Centre


This exhibition has been produced by the charity, Art Refuge UK, which
helps Tibetan refugee children newly arrived in Nepal or India, through
the medium of visual arts and creative play. It is a celebration of the
courage and determination of the hundreds of children, many under 14 years
old, who make the difficult journey into exile each year. The drawings and
paintings on display reflect the children's views of their struggle to
leave Tibet, their experiences and recollections of their long journey to
freedom, and their hopes and dreams for the future. The exhibition also
contains photographs of some of the children.
More images


Performance

by Tibetan monks from the Drepung Lubum Monastery (India)


Wednesday 12 December 2007, Banchory Town Hall; 8.00 - 10.00pm

This event was a great success, with over £2300 raised.  Click here  for a report and photos.



On a World Peace Tour, the monks present an evening of cultural
performance introducing the main concepts of Tibetan Buddhism and culture.
There will be a demonstration of meditation, Tantric chanting and sacred
masks dance, rarely witnessed in the West.

Tickets: £7.50/ £5.00 concession; contact Claudia van Zuiden by email:
inner-melodies {atsymbol} hotmail.co.uk  or
phone: 01339 883889


This is a very rare opportunity for many of us to witness such cultural performance, and we are delighted
to be able to offer you this on wednesday 12th december 2007,in the Town Hall of Banchory,Aberdeenshire.


The Monks are doing a World Peace Tour, and will share their Tibetan
Culture by explaining concepts of Tibetan Buddhism and its perspective on
World Peace and its importance for the World.

The programme will include :

-Introduction
-Mandala Offering
-Receiving the Portrait of H.H. the Dalai Lama
-Debate
-Meditation
-Chant:Chod from the Tantric tradition
-Kangri 'Protector' Dance

Interval 20 mins

-Chant
-Namsea-Dance
-Yak Dance
-Tashi Shospa-Good Luck Dance
-Closing Chant:Shi-Jod
-Prayers of Dedication

We are helping to raise money for the Monastery by facilitating this
event, and will also have a little stall with artifacts made by the monks,
and other products from Tibet and India for sale.

If you feel you would like to donate money to the monks, please contact
Claudia for further details.

We certainly hope that you will join us in this ceremony for Love and
Compassion, and are looking forward to seeing you there.

It may also be of interest that  on the weekend before the event in Banchory, the monks will be at the
Shambala Retreat Centre at Findhorn for ceremonial blessings and the
making of a sand mandala. If you would like to find out more about this,
please visit the website www.shambala-retreat.org

Organisers:  Claudia van Zuiden and  Jason Schroeder     
http://www.inner.melodies.4t.com
www.sacredway.co.uk





Illustrated Talk

'Newars: Dharma, Trade and Art

(but not much War) in theGreater Himalayas'

Tuesday 6 November, 7.30pm; upper hall, Chaplaincy Centre

 (enter by reardoor on Elphinstone Road)


Given by Dr Will Tuladhar Douglas, Lecturer in Indic Religions & Director,
Scottish Centre for Himalayan Research, Aberdeen University

The Newars are the indigenous inhabitants of the Kathmandu Valley,
inheritors of an urban civilization some 2500 years old, and a key source
for Tibetan Buddhism in the 7th - 17th centuries. In this gentle
introduction to Nepal Mandala and its peoples, Dr Tuladhar Douglas will
use stories, images, some dry history and perhaps even a song to reveal
the complex society that lives in the courtyards of the Kathmandu Valley.

Film

'The Forbidden Team'

at University of Aberdeen


This is a humorous and inspiring documentary about an historic football
match in 2001 between the "National Teams" of Greenland and Tibet - a
match that an infuriated Chinese Government tried vigorously to stop. From
the first practice sessions of the young Tibetan exiles on a craggy, muddy
pitch in Dharamsala, India, to the final whistle of the match in
Copenhagen, two years later, the film follows an inspiring group of
Tibetans whose love of football is matched only by their love of Tibet.

This coming Thursday 11 October, at 7.30pm, Room KCF7 King's College, High
Street, Old Aberdeen.

Concert for Tibet

Sunday 2 September

Moonshine Madness 

All funds to Tibetan Charities



"Moonshine Madness" will perform folk country, bluegrass, Scottish and
Irish ballads in the chapel of the 18th century Letterfourie House,
Drybridge, by Buckie. The delightful grounds are home to 200 soay sheep,
and there is a Woolworks studio (spinning, dyeing, felting & weaving) in
the House. All funds raised will go to Tibetan charities.
Concert at 2.00pm. Contact 01542 840160 or 01224 314127 for tickets (£5).

Photos of event


Film

'The Forbidden Team'


This is a humorous and inspiring documentary about an historic football
match in 2001 between the "National Teams" of Greenland and Tibet - a
match that an infuriated Chinese Government tried vigorously to stop. From
the first practice sessions of the young Tibetan exiles on a craggy, muddy
pitch in Dharamsala, India, to the final whistle of the match in
Copenhagen, two years later, the film follows an inspiring group of
Tibetans whose love of football is matched only by their love of Tibet.

An item about the film and TSGG will be in the forthcoming Belmont
programme for the period 24 August - 4 October. The manager at the Belmont
has been most helpful and arranged for a free screening (a stipulation of
the film's producer), so we would like to ensure a large audience. Do
please come; also tell all your family and friends about it.

Saturday 15 September, 11.30 am, Belmont cinema, Aberdeen.