Why An Empty Frame Campaign ?

The Empty Frame

The Tiny Empty Frame

The Picture Revealed

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Why An Empty Frame Campaign ?

How ?

What does the Empty Frame mean ?

Why An Empty Frame Campaign ?

1. To maintain solidarity with the millions of Tibetans who are now under government edict banning all pictures of His Holiness the Dalai Lama inside his own country.
   • Monks and nuns have been shot and beaten by the Communist Chinese Security forces when enforcing this ban. Almost fourty years after His Holiness was forced to leave the country, his people still hold him in high esteem, as these incidents clearly demonstrate.

   • Word has reached the West that Tibetan shop owners and other proud Tibetans were demonstrating against this new regulation by leaving the empty frame in place after the picture was removed. This most certainly will not make life easy for these brave people who are willing to stand up and make their voice heard where electric cattle-prods and a free hand at violence are standard issue to all security forces.

2. The current state of negotiations between the Tibetan Government-in-Exile and the Chinese Communist Party run People's Republic of China is at a standstill.
   • The Dala Lama has maintained a non-violent search for a solution to the relationship between Tibet and China that will bring peace and prosperity to Tibet and China.

   • As stated many times in public, the Dalai Lama's 5-point peace plan, endorsed by many world governmental bodies, including the US Congress, has been ignored by the PRC. They want to talk about his return, the Dalai Lama wants to talk about his people feeling at home in their own country.

3. To add insult to injury, the People's Republic of China has now banned pictures of the Dalai Lama.
   • This includes inside the Potala Palace, the home of sucessive Dalai Lamas since 1645.
   • The great Gelukpa monasteries of
     • Ganden, founded in 1409, which used to house 4,000 monks prior to 1959;
     • Sera, founded in 1419 whiched housed 6,000 monks prior to 1959; and
     • Drepung, founded in 1416, once the largest monastery in the world,
     are likewise forbidden to display pictures of His Holiness.
   • In factories and shops and other places of work, pictures are banned.
   • And even in people's homes, pictures are banned !

4. In a small way, this campaign will show that we haven't forgotten about Tibet and her people.
   • As we become more aware of the sufferings of the people under Chinese Communist Party domination, we can make informed economic decisions to cease the funding of the People's Liberation Army through the purchase of ordinary household items that they manufacture in prison factories.
   • We can insist that Intellectual property is not something that can be copied at will and used without regard to payment.
   • We can insist that the human rights agreements to which the People's Republic of China are signatories, are followed with regard to Tibetans, Uighurs, and Mongolians.
   • We can insist that the rights to freedom and self-determination that should be enjoyed by all people, are allowed for Tibetans, Eastern Turkestanis, Inner Mongolians and all other peoples of the world.

1. Place the small empty frame gif on your home page with a link to the 'empty frame' home page.
   
   • The image file is located at: http://www.churchward.com/mt/tinyframe.gif
   • The link to the empty frame home page is: http://www.churchward.com/mt/
     
   • Written in html code, the following will provide both a centered image and a link to the empty frame home page:

     <center> <a href="http://www.churchward.com/mt/"><img src="http://www.churchward.com/mt/tinyframe.gif"></a> </center>

2. Make your elected representative know how you feel about the treatment of Tibetans under four decades of harsh Communist Chinese rule.
   • We don't want Most Favored Nation trading status for a brutal and repressive regime.
   • We don't want to continue business as usual while the cultural genocide of Tibetans, Uighurs, Mongolians, Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Kirghiz, Maio, Buyei, remains in place through policy and actions.
   • We don't want to allow goods made in prison factories under slave labor conditions to be promoted and encouraged.

3. Get active ! Get in touch with your local Tibet Support Group and join the struggle.

4. For further ideas on how you can help, contact: Tibetan Online Resource Gathering