Drumming Up Support For Tibets Cause

Music apart, supporters rope in couturiers for Hang Tags campaign

Modern musics hot new stars are lining up this weekend for what is being billed as the biggest musical event in New Yorks history as the Beastie Boys resident Buddhist Adam Yauch organises the second two-day Tibetan Freedom Concert, in a bid to reach out to thousands of young Americans. Alanis Morissette will be there, so will Red Hot Chili Peppers, Michael Stipe and Mike Mills, Taj Mahal, Sonic Youth, Patti Smith and the Foo Fighters, along with a slew of other rock, rap and alternative music bands.

Yauch, who founded the Milarepa Fund (named for an 11th century Tibetan saint) two years ago, is hoping to raise awareness of the Dalai Lamas crusade, and collect funds for projects in the US, India and Nepal. At the rock concert, the music will be interspersed with messages on human rights violations, and monks talking of their persecution.

 

Last years inaugural Tibetan Freedom Concert in San Francisco was a stunning success. The two-day fest attracted 100,000 people and raised about $800,000 for Milarepas Tibet-related projects. This year, organisers, making do with a smaller venue, are hoping to bring in more than 28,000 people each day. Thousands more will join in on the Internet where the concert will be broadcast live.

The organisers, cashing in on the peculiar appeal of music mixed with human rights, are focusing on wooing supporters for Tibets cause. We will probably not raise as much as last year because of higher expenses, said International Campaign for Tibetan Communications director Buchung Tsering. Milerapa works well with the younger generation. Before the San Francisco concert, there were about a dozen Students for a Free Tibet chapters in the US. Since then, more than 200 chapters have been set up.

Music apart, Yauch is also trying to involve the fashion industry in Tibets cause. Milerapa has launched a Hang Tags campaign, asking couturiers to attach labels describing human rights violations in Tibet to their clothes. As consumers, we can either be part of the problem, or part of the solution, says a tag. Among those who have signed on so far are designers Todd Oldham and Anna Sui.

At the same time, the fund is spearheading a campaign to get Holiday Inn out of Tibet (the hotel chain has a partnership with the Chinese government for its hotel in Lhasa; Milerapa claims the propertys income represents 75 per cent of all the foreign money going into Tibet), and a fax campaign to free jailed Tibetan human rights activists.

The concert is in tune with Tibets extraordinary appeal for Americas entertainment world, including film stars, such as, Harrison Ford and Richard Gere. This is the combination of many factors, Tsering said, trying to explain the phenomenon. The personality of the Dalai Lama, the spiritual and cultural benefits of being involved, and the ability to attract colleagues.

Yauch, musing over Tibets charm, wrote recently, May be it is that I see their society as an example of how people can live in peace. An example or blueprint of a way that a culture can operate in harmony with itself and the land.