The 2008 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad and also known as Beijing 2008, were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) competed in 28 sports and 302 events, one event more than those scheduled for the 2004 Summer Olympics. This was the first time China had hosted the Olympic Games, and the third time the Summer Olympic Games had been held in East Asia, following the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, and the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. These were also the second Summer Olympic Games to be held in a communist state, the first being the 1980 Summer Olympics in the Soviet Union.
Miss Tibet is an annual beauty pageant held in McLeod Ganj, India. It is produced by Lobsang Wangyal Productions.
The Iowa Hawkeyes are the athletic teams that represent the University of Iowa, located in Iowa City, Iowa. The Hawkeyes have varsity teams in 20 sports, 7 for men and 13 for women; The teams participate in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and are members of the Big Ten Conference. Currently, the school's interim athletic director is Beth Goetz.
Tsering Woeser is a Tibetan writer, activist, blogger, poet and essayist.
The 2008 Summer Olympics torch relay was run from March 24 until August 8, 2008, prior to the 2008 Summer Olympics, with the theme of "one world, one dream". Plans for the relay were announced on April 26, 2007, in Beijing, China. The relay, also called by the organizers as the "Journey of Harmony", lasted 129 days and carried the torch 137,000 km (85,000 mi) – the longest distance of any Olympic torch relay since the tradition was started ahead of the 1936 Summer Olympics.
Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme was a Tibetan senior official who assumed various military and political responsibilities both before and after 1951 in Tibet. He is often known simply as Ngapo in English sources.
Tsering Chungtak was a Tibetan beauty queen who represented Tibet in the 2006 edition of the environmentally oriented beauty pageant, Miss Earth. She was the first Tibetan woman to participate in any major international beauty contest. Tsering pursued her undergraduation from Hindu College, University of Delhi and was pursuing her PhD degree in Sociology from Jawaharlal Nehru University. She was working as a research scholar with Ayur Gyan Nyas, an organisation creating curriculum on secular ethics for students from class one to twelve.
The 2008 Tibetan unrest, also referred to as the 2008 Tibetan uprising in Tibetan media, was a series of protests and demonstrations over the Chinese government's treatment and persecution of Tibetans. Protests in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, by monks and nuns on 10 March have been viewed as the start of the demonstrations. Numerous peaceful protests and demonstrations were held to commemorate the 49th anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan Uprising Day, when the 14th Dalai Lama escaped from Tibet. The protests and demonstrations spread spontaneously to a number of monasteries and throughout the Tibetan plateau, including into counties located outside the designated Tibet Autonomous Region. The arrest of monks at Labrang Monastery increased the tension of the situation. Violence began when Chinese police and People's Liberation Army units used force on non-violent protests by monks and nuns, and spread when protesting Tibetans later clashed with security forces. Clashes also occurred between Tibetans and Chinese Han and Hui residents, resulting in Han and Hui stores and buildings being destroyed and numerous Chinese civilians being injured or killed.
Jamyang Kyi is a noted Tibetan singer, feminist and writer, journalist, and a prominent television broadcaster. She was born in 1965 in Amdo, northeastern region of Tibet.
Colombia competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics. The country sent 68 athletes to compete in 15 sports, making this Colombia's largest ever delegation to the Olympics.
Cuba competed in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, People's Republic of China. As of 8 August 2008, 165 Cuban athletes had qualified to compete in 16 sports. The country's flagbearer at the opening ceremony was wrestler Mijaín López.
Grenada competed in the 2008 Summer Olympics, held in Beijing, People's Republic of China from 8 to 24 August 2008. Nine athletes represented the country, eight track and field athletes and one boxer. Of the eight track and field competitors, five were women, and three were men. Although none of the athletes would win a medal, runners Allison George and Neisha Bernard-Thomas progressed past the qualification rounds, and participated on behalf of Grenada in the quarterfinals of their events. Grenada's Beijing delegation was their biggest at nine athletes, and marked the seventh consecutive appearance of Grenada at the Olympics.
Serfs' Emancipation Day, observed annually on 28 March, is a holiday in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China that celebrates the emancipation of serfs in Tibet. The holiday was adopted by the Tibetan legislature on 19 January 2009 and it was promulgated that same year. In modern Tibetan history, the Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai declared the dissolution of the Tibetan government on 28 March 1959 and he replaced it with the temporary Preparatory Committee for the Tibet Autonomous Region (PCTAR), with the Panchen Lama also replacing the Dalai Lama as its acting chairman.
The 2008 Tibetan unrest was a series of protests and demonstrations met by excessive force, focused on the persecution of Tibetans, in the buildup to the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. There was a mixture of outrage and understanding from leading figures abroad.
Tsering Dolma Gyaltong was a Tibetan spiritual leader living in exile in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Tsering was active in being a Founding Member of the Tibetan Women's Association and re-establishing it again in 1984.
Lobsang Wangyal is a writer, social activist, photojournalist, and events producer, based in McLeod Ganj, Dharamshala, India. He has been a stringer reporter and photographer for Agence France-Presse for many years.
The inaugural Miss Himalaya Pageant was held in McLeod Ganj, India, on 12–13 October 2012. The purpose of the annual event is "to bring women from the entire Himalayan region onto one platform to celebrate the beautiful cultures, people, and nature of the Himalayan region."
The first World Mind Sports Games (WMSG) were held in Beijing, China from October 3 to 18, 2008, about two months after the Olympic Games. They were sponsored and organised by the International Mind Sports Association with the General Administration of Sport of China and the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Sport.
The 2012 World Mind Sports Games were held in Lille, France, from 9 to 23 August 2012. The meeting started during the 2012 Summer Olympics and ending shortly before the 2012 Summer Paralympics, both in London. This was the second rendition of the World Mind Sports Games, which was inaugurated in 2008 in Beijing. The mind sport games had about 2000 players from 95 nations—down from 2,763 competitors and 143 countries at the 1st Games. More than half of the gold medals were contested at draughts and Russia, with the strongest draughts squad, won the most gold and most overall medals. China won five gold medals—all five events contested at Xiangqi. Chinese Taipei won four gold medals—four of the five events contested at go.
The Tibet women's football team is a national association football team controlled by the Tibet Women's Soccer (TWS), an organization of exiled Tibetans. Its current team manager is Gompo Dorjee.
