Iowa Staters had a chance Wednesday to learn more about Tibet’s fight for freedom from Chinese dominance.

Shu-Min Huang, professor of anthropology at ISU, provided 11 audience members at the Memorial Union historical background information about the relationship between China and Tibet.

“‘Tibet From All Sides’ was motivated by a desire to get accurate information about the situation in Tibet,” said Jeanne Higgs, program coordinator for the YWCA.

“Most people are getting information from the movies such as ‘Red Corner’ and ‘Seven Years in Tibet,'” she said. “People don’t know much about [the history of China and Tibet] so we want to educate them.”

Higgs said the speech given by Harry Wu last semester that was highly criticized and protested by several hundred ISU Chinese students also was a reason for “Tibet From All Sides.”

Wu, a former Chinese political prisoner, spoke at ISU in September about his beliefs about the Chinese communist government.

Wu spent 19 years in Chinese forced labor camps and continues to speak out against the Chinese government.

Chinese students accused Wu of lying about the Chinese government.

Huang began by giving a brief historical background regarding the relationship between China and Tibet dating back to the Han Dynasty in 206 B.C.

Huang stressed he has never been to Tibet and he does not claim to be an expert about Tibet. He said he has learned about the country from Chinese historical books.

Huang led the audience through a history of invasions, as well as political and religious reforms that Tibet experienced, beginning with the Han Dynasty and ending with the invasion of Tibet by British troops in 1903.

Tibet has been fighting for freedom from nomadic and Chinese dominance since its creation, he said.

The Great Wall of China was built to keep nomadic groups out of China Proper, which consists of the eastern one-third of China, Huang said.

Ryan Bergman, ISU president of Students for a Free Tibet, spoke about his organization’s involvement in advocating freedom for Tibet.

Students for a Free Tibet, an organization established in 1990, is growing vastly with an average of 60 new chapters each year. The organization strives to gain human rights in Tibet.

Bergman said the Tibetans were in denial regarding the invasion of the Chinese. He said Tibetans heard the invasion was going to happen, but they didn’t believe the Chinese would invade. He said they also wouldn’t ask for help from other nations to repel the invasions.

Huang agreed with Bergman, adding that this was typical of Tibetans in other invasions as well.

When the British invaded Tibet in 1903, the 13th Dalai Lama refused to negotiate with Britain, Huang said.

He said Britain invaded Tibet in response to Russia’s establishing control over parts of Asia and their desire for having a direct trade route to China.

Fearing Russia would gain dominance over Tibet to increase its presence in China, the British invaded Tibet to gain control before the Russians.

In 1906, Huang said Britain pulled out of Tibet and negotiated a treaty with the nation that included special trade agreements with Britain.

Bergman said Chinese refer to Tibetans as barbarians, and that although Tibet is located in China, the Tibetans do not think of themselves as Chinese.

Margartgean Weltha, retiree from the Office of International Students and Scholars, has traveled to China several times and said she is devastated by the situation in Tibet.

She said bombs have destroyed a lot of the temples in Tibet, and that old Buddhist manuscripts have been burned. She also said the Tibetan language is breaking down.

Ma Yunfang, ISU Chinese student, countered Weltha’s comments by saying that China has many different languages. She said it is hard to communicate to all Chinese people since there is not just one language everyone speaks.

However, she said it would be much easier to communicate if China had one common language.

As for the destroyed temples, the Chinese government has supplied money to help repair them in efforts of focusing on economic reform, she said.

One audience member compared the Tibetan people to the Native Americans and other immigrant groups in America, noting that they have been assimilated in American society.

“Tibetans are being religiously repressed and have no place to go, whereas other immigrants had a place to go,” Bergman said.