The Light of Truth Award is a human rights award which is presented nearly annually by the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT), an NGO aiming for the promotion of democracy and human rights for the Tibetan people. The award is presented since 1995 by the fourteenth Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, to the recipients personally.
The prize consists of a humble Tibetan butter lamp that serves as a symbol of the extraordinary light that every recipient brought to Tibet. In 2005 the ICT received an award itself, the Geuzenpenning, a human rights award from the Netherlands.
The Light of Truth Award is granted to persons and organizations that have publicly contributed substantially to the rise of and battle for human rights and democratic freedoms of the Tibetan people. In 2001, the award was presented to the entire people of India, and accepted for them by president R. Venkataraman.
Recipients 1995: A. M. Rosenthal 1996: Richard Gere, Lavinia Currier, and Michael Currier 1997: Charlie Rose, and Claiborne Pell 1998: Martin Scorsese, and Melissa Mathison 1999: Hugh Edward Richardson, and Danielle Mitterrand 2000: Richard C. Blum 2001: The people of India, taken delivery of by R. Venkataraman 2002: Heinrich Harrer, and Petra Kelly 2003: Benjamin A. Gilman, Michele Bohana, and Robert Thurman 2004: Otto Graf Lambsdorff, Irmtraut Wäger, and Václav Havel 2005: Elie Wiesel, Carl Gershman, and Lowell Thomas, Jr. 2006: Hergé Foundation, and Desmond Tutu 2009: Julia Taft, and Wang Lixiong 2011: George Patterson 2013: Robert Ford, International Commission of Jurists, Sigrid Joss-Arnd, Christian Schwarz-Schilling, Theo van BovenLamp for the Path Teachings in Fribourg , Dalai Lama website, 14 April 2013 2024: Nancy PelosiICT ehrt Nancy Pelosi für ihre herausragende Unterstützung Tibets mit «Light of Truth Award»
References
ICT, Recipients and description ICT, Light of Truth award to Patterson, March 25, 2011 Geuzenverzet, recipients of de Geuzenpenning Canada Tibet Committee, 4. Light of Truth award to India, December 17, 2002