SFT to Honour Tibetan Activists and Hong Kong Pro-Democracy Leader with Annual Lhakar Awards
By Tenzin Chokyi
DHARAMSALA, 26 Aug: Student for a Free Tibet(SFT) has conferred its annual Lhakar Awards, honouring the SFT France chapter and Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Anna Kwok for activism in exile, while recognising imprisoned climate activist Anya(A-Nya) Sengdra with the Lhakar award for courage.
The awards will be presented during Longsho Nite 2025 on 30th August at the Tibetan Community Center of NYNJ, a fundraising concert organised annually by SFT.
The event will feature performances by renowned Tibetan artists Pemsi, Tenzin Woeser and Lobsang Tsetan, along with rising Tibetan female rapper YNKI, multi-talented Sonamly, Nepali-American rapper Rato Rani and Mmimang Lhakar.
“Longsho Nite is a time to come together as a community and celebrate the campaigns, grassroots mobilisation, and efforts of SFT for the past 31 years. It also serves as an opportunity to recognize the hard work, dedication and drive of the Lhakar award recipients,” the SFT-International stated on its social media accounts.
The Lhakar Award is presented annually by SFT, one of the largest NGOs in the Tibetan exile community advocating for Tibet’s full independence from China’s colonial occupation—to individuals and groups carrying out impactful, innovative, and courageous work for the Tibetan freedom movement, both in exile and in occupied Tibet.
While A-Nya Sengdra continues to remain imprisoned in Chinese custody in occupied Tibet, SFT France president Yangchen and Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Anna Kwok will attend Longsho Nite to receive the award.
A- Nya Sengdra, a Tibetan human rights defender and climate activist working on anti- corruption and environmental issues in occupied Tibet, was sentenced to seven years in prison on December 6, 2019. He successfully mobilized Tibetan nomads in the heavily surveilled and restricted region to carry out environmental campaigns targeting illegal mining and hunting. He was awarded the 7th Tenzin Delek Rinpoche Medal of Courage in 2022.
As China aggressively pushes its expansionist and assimilation policies in occupied Tibet and beyond, the SFT France chapter has been actively working against international museums in France complicit in adopting China’s colonial designation for Tibet, “Xizang”.
Led by president Yangchen, the SFT France has organised weekly protests outside the Guimet Museum against its refusal to stop legitimizing China’s colonial narrative. The chapter has now officially taken legal action in response to the museum’s decision to erase the name Tibet from its labels, publications and exhibitions.
Anna Kwok is a Hong Kong pro-democracy activist, an outspoken supporter of the Tibetan freedom movement, and the Executive Director of the Hong Kong Democracy Council (HKDC) in Washington, D.C. She rose to prominence during the 2019 Hong Kong protests by organizing global campaigns. In 2023, Hong Kong authorities issued a warrant for her arrest under the National Security Law, with a HK$1 million bounty. Since then, her family in Hong Kong has also been targeted by authorities.
