Minnesota, US — A couple of Tibetan students in Minnesota Saturday hosted a three hour-long dialogue between Tibetan and Chinese students at University of Minnesota.
London based Professor Dibyesh Anand and Minnesota based Professor Norman Piatti were guest of the speakers of the dialogue between Tibetan and Chinese students at the university.
Professor Dibyesh Anand spoke about the two narratives of Tibet; one from Chinese side and one from Tibet side, and professor Norman Piatti spoke about the middle way approach that was initially introduced by the Dalai Lama.
Following the talks by the two professors, the participants of the dialogue were divided in groups of tens and had a meaningful discussion about the middle way approach, and about the ongoing situations inside Tibet as well as in China.
"I am from China and I was in China for more than 16 years, and I never felt the threat to my freedom of speech. Maybe that is because I am an average person," said a Chinese student who is an international student at the University of Minnesota.
"Maybe there is more freedom in mainland China than in Tibet," added a Tibetan student at the event.
According to Norzin Wangpo, one of the main organizers of the event said that there are around 30 Tibetan students and over 3000 Chinese students at the University of Minnesota. Sources said lot of these Chinese students' families have good ties with the Chinese politicians in China, and many of the participants at the dialogue requested to make sure that their faces were not photographed.
Sources also said that few Chinese students even suggested to host such events somewhere else other than on the campus of University of Minnesota saying that there might be spies among themselves as the number of students from China is high at the above mentioned university.
The event was hosted by Tibetan American Students Association of the university and Tibetan American Foundation of Minnesota.
Tendar Tsering is a U.S.A. based freelance for the Tibet Post International.
