Four to vie for Miss Tibet crown

Dharamsala, May 30 (IANS) The ninth edition of the Miss Tibet Pageant will be held in this Himachal Pradesh town, home to the Tibetan government-in-exile, June 4-6 with four contestants vying for the crown.

'This year, the beauty pageant will be a low-key affair in the wake of a recent earthquake in Tibet in China,' the event's director-producer Lobsang Wangyal told IANS.

'Four contestants would vie for the Miss Tibet Pageant 2010. Initially, 15 contestants applied for the contest but only four have confirmed their participation,' he said.

Wangyal said there will no stage decoration and fireworks during the contest this time. 'Special prayer sessions would be held for the quake victims.'

The competition will consist of seven rounds. The winner will get a cash prize of Rs.100,000. The first runner-up will get Rs.50,000 and the second runner-up Rs.25,000.

Before the finale, the participants will undergo a week's training in yoga, stage craft and dance along with orientation in Tibetan history, culture and current affairs.

Though the government-in-exile has expressed its displeasure at the holding of the pageant that started in 2002, Wangyal thinks differently. He says: 'It's one way of highlighting the cause of Tibet across the world.'

Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, fled his homeland in 1959 after a failed uprising and has been staying here since. McLeodganj near here is the abode-in-exile of the Dalai Lama.

A total of 140,000 Tibetans live in exile, over 100,000 of them in different parts of India.