On August 10, the Dalai Lama was honored with the Robert and Margrit Mondavi Humanitarian Award for Peace and Understanding at the 16th Annual Wine Country Film Festival. The Office of Tibet in New York said Mr. Tenzing Chonden, the North America Representative of the Tibetan Parliament-In-Exile, accepted the award on the Dalai Lama’s behalf.
In accepting the award, Mr. Tenzing Chonden stated that “despite the tremendous suffering faced by the Tibetan people over the last fifty years of illegal occupation of Tibet, His Holiness, in seeking long term security and well being of both the Chinese people and the Tibetan people, continues to strive for a peaceful, nonviolent negotiated resolution to the Tibetan problem.”
Mr. Chonden will deliver the award to His Holiness in Dharamsala during the September session of Parliament.
The award ceremony was the Wine Country Film Festival’s second event relating to Tibet in the past weeks. On Sunday, July 28, the Festival hosted “Celebrate Tibet Day,” at which time three Tibetan films were shown, followed by a panel discussion with the filmmakers and a prayer ceremony.
The 2001 recipient of the Robert and Margrit Mondavi Humanitarian Award for Peace and Understanding was Nobel Peace Laureate Jose Ramos Horta of East Timor.