Dharamshala: - The nine day long Tibet Awareness Programme held at the Federal University of Santa Catarina in Florianopolis, South Brazil, concluded successfully on the 4th of June with the careful removal of the intricate sand mandala that was made by Ven Tenzin Thutop of the Namgyal Monastery. The conference during its 9 day duration invited eminent Brazilian writers/journalists' for interesting panel discussion on Tibet.
According to the Tibetan Administration official media: Tibet Net, some of the pre eminent personalities included 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). The three guests took part in the discussion and shared their stories about exploring Tibet and covered stories on it.
Earlier during the conference, Mr Robert Barnett, Assistant Professor of Contemporary Tibetan Studies and Director of Modern Tibetan Studies Program at Columbia University in New York, had two enlightening presentations on Tibet-the first one focused on Tibet, China and Culture Renaissance and the second one was on China's Underlying Strategy on Tibet.
The Tibetans that were present at the conference were Lama Padma Samten of Porto Alegre based Centro de Estudos Budistas Bodisatva, Tsewang Phuntsok, CTA's Liaison Officer for Latin America, Tiffany H. Gyatso, a Brazilian Tibetan Thangka painter, and Ogen Shak, a lone Tibetan Thangka artist who currently lives in Brazil. The above mentioned individuals all gave detailed presentations on Tibet and Tibetan culture.
The event featured exhibition of photos on Tibet, the Missing Peace Arts, and Thangka paintings as well as screening of movies on Tibet. The showstopper was the construction of the Sand Mandala. The conference was covered extensively by local and regional newspapers, radio and television channels.
