Give a Hand to Free Tibet

1998: Activities in Europe and the USA – the journey to India and the Tibetan border

Since we began our action “Give a Hand to Free Tibet”, close to 20,000 hands have reached us from all over the world. We have made contacts with many organizations and support groups and of course we have been able to present our project on this web site. All this has allowed us to disseminate information globally to many tens of thousands of people about the desperate situation for Tibetan people and their land under Chinese rule.

For our action to be effective in increasing the pressure on the UN and other power brokers it is important that we gather an impressive number of hands.

Collecting hands on the streets in Europe and the USA

On March 8th, at the European Manifestation for Tibet in Paris, we collected hands and met Tibetan government officials and many international activists. This was the first “Give a Hand” event we staged outside Bielefeld.

On June 2nd, en-route to Northern India, we took our performance to the UN headquarters in New York, collecting hands on the square in front of the UN building, and in Bryant Park during the ‘lunch time rush’, tackling the Tibetan issue with the tough corporate sector. Here we had help from some volunteers from the Tibetan Support Group and musicians including some Tibetan people. We made other performances and collected hands in Ohio at the Cleveland Public Theatre during the 11th Cleveland Performance Art Festival.

Special thanks to the many international groups that staged similar events, sending us enormous amounts of hands as a result.

Dharamsala

On June 10, 1998 outside Tusglag Khang Temple, the temple of His Holiness in Dharamsala, we understood more deeply why we had been working so hard for the past year. To be surrounded by Tibetan people was for us an experience beyond words. The support that we received was overwhelming. They flocked to read the messages sent to them by ordinary people from all over the world — people who have not forgotten them and who love and respect them and their culture. These messages were on the hands that we had collected and now hung on strings around the temple like Tibetan prayer flags. The people were visibly touched, with many freely expressing their gratitude and sometimes surprize. Young and old, monk and lay, residents and tourists all responded quickly by giving their hands.

Near the Tibetan border

Due to the heavy militarisation of the sensitive border area, foreigners are not allowed to visit the place we had originally envisaged for the performance. On the advice of Mr Sonam Tsering, Chief Representative of the Tibetan Government in Exile for the Ladakh region, we decided to work at the refugee settlement at Choglamsar, close to the Tibetan border. It was a very good opportunity to work together with Tibetan people. And it was a perfectly suited place to display the hands we had brought from 80 different countries, as well as to leave a sign of hope in the form of our large hand sculpture that would be visible there every day. With this action we hope to contribute to the healing process for the people within Tibet as well as those living in exile.
At Choglamsar we found wonderful support from the residents, from small children to old people, including representatives of the Tibetan Youth Congress and the Tibetan Women’s Association. Together we built a large hand of about 90×70 ft [that’s 27×21 m, ed.] which reaches towards Tibet, with the slogan “FREE TIBET” across it. It is a tradition in this area of the Himalayas to make prayers and signs using whitewashed stones stacked on hillsides.

Our hand was completed on 28th June when we had a ceremony with several hundred local people and illuminated the hand with hundreds of oil lamps. We threaded all the paper hands we had brought with us and formed a chain with them around the hand sculpture. The people sang the Tibetan national anthem and then shouted slogans to His Holiness and the freedom of Tibet.

We also collected about 2,000 hands which we will display in Europe – hands that speak of the injustice and pain of dislocation and disenfranchment. After the ceremony we took the chain down so we could return with the hands and present them to the Dalai Lama on the 1st of November at Schneverdingen in Northern Germany.

Thanks to all of you

who have already sent us hands – please keep them coming!