As we mark the 50th anniversary of the Tibetan diaspora, we are presenting messages of hope and encouragement, messages that recognize the extraordinary courage and perseverance of the Tibetan people as they struggle to preserve their unique culture for the benefit of the global community.  These messages will be featured here on the 50 Years in Exile website and will be shared through various media in the coming year. 

We are pleased to begin with messages from Sogyal Rinpoche, eminent Buddhist teacher and author of “The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying,” and Richard Gere, Founder and President, the Gere Foundation. In the coming days, we will be posting messages from senior teachers in the Tibetan tradition and prominent leaders in the global community, so please check back with us again and often.

Over the past 50 years, the Tibetan people have undergone so much in order to preserve their unique spiritual and cultural heritage, and to share it with the world. 

I am delighted that The Tibet Fund has organized this very special series of events in 2009 to celebrate Tibetan identity and culture, and honor the achievements of the Tibetan community in exile. 

At this crucial point in the history of Tibet, we all have an urgent responsibility to ensure that its spiritual teachings and rich traditions are not lost. 

The 50 Years in Exile project will increase understanding and help to generate support for the Tibetan people’s efforts to safeguard their culture, which is of such far-reaching importance, not only for the Tibetans but for people the world over. 

-Sogyal Rinpoche

As I consider the past fifty years of Tibetan culture and my own friendship with my Tibetan brothers and sisters that began over 30 years ago, what continues to touch me at my very core, is the Tibetan community’s profound and unbreakable commitment to kindness, compassion and nonviolence. In the face of so much tragedy, their rock-solid trust in these Buddhist precepts has set an extraordinary example for the rest of the world.  

Nonviolence, like enlightenment itself is not an easy road to walk; ask Ghandi, ask Martin Luther King, it can take a long time to achieve…perhaps a very long time, but the results are pure and just. With the courage and grace shown by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan people, whether they live in exile or remain inside an occupied Tibet, it is their peaceful resistance that promises a future filled with hope and genuine peace.  

I am proud to support the Tibet Fund’s Fifty Years in Exile as it gives me yet another opportunity to express my heartfelt thanks for the invaluable contributions Tibetan culture has made not only to my life and the lives of family and friends, but to the entire planet. With their continued sacrifice and with the help of the genuine friendships they have made everywhere over the past fifty years, may the Tibetan people quickly achieve lasting peace in Tibet and may they always inspire us to transform our world into a sacred place of peace and bliss for all sentient beings.  

- Richard Gere