"Miss Tibet" Participants Arrive in Dharamsala

As reported by keralanext.com; Oct. 7, 2006

Dharamsala -- Six beautiful women have arrived in this Himachal town to participate in the Miss Tibet 2006 contest to be held Oct 13-15.

The names of the participants, which include aspirants from Delhi, Nepal and Canada, were announced Friday by Lobsang Wangyal, director of the pageant.

"We received applications from 11 eligible candidates. Two dropped out earlier on. After nine got confirmed, one from Singapore couldn't come due to leave problems, one from Sikkim got sick and the one from Bangalore . . . we don't know her reason yet," said Wangyal.

But Wangyal was confident that more participants could be expected in future as Tibetan society was slowly changing. Said Wangyal: "We now have six brave contestants. It must have been a difficult decision for each of them to confront a traditionalist Tibetan society. But since change is a natural phenomenon and since Tibetan people need to move forward, we believe the participants are responsible, forward-looking and modern Tibetan women. We, therefore, have every reason to expect more contestants in the future."

The three-day beauty contest includes a swimwear round, which will be held at Asia Health Resorts here.

On Oct 14, the contestants are to make a presentation on Tibetan history, culture and current affairs at the Tipa auditorium.

The grand finale night Oct 15, which will see the aspirants in their traditional costumes, will be held at Tipa ground in Mcleod Ganj.

Dharamsala is the seat of the Dalai Lama's government-in-exile and is home to thousands of Tibetans.