Tibetan community to celebrate 'Tibet Festival' in Sikkim

Gangtok, Nov 4 : The Tibetan community in Sikkim would host their maiden five day 'Tibet Festival' in Gangtok from November 6 on the occasion of the 50th year of ‘Tibetans in exile'.

The festival has been organised to acknowledge, honour and thank the government and people of India, especially the Himalayan State for providing a refuge to the Tibetan community.

It will be held at Kanchenjunga Shopping Complex, Lal Bazaar here, the organisers informed.

The festival would display the Tibetan culture, religion, Buddhist rituals, medicine and astrology, music and dance, costumes, arts and crafts and cuisine.

''It expresses the preservation of Tibetan cultural identity that has been kept intact for the past 50 years. It would exhibit the spirit of Tibet in its original form,'' the committee added.

The Tibetan community expressed indebtedness to the XIV Dalai Lama ‘who has provided an unwavering and visionary leadership for all Tibetan people across the world for fifty years’.

The festival would be inaugurated by State PHE minister TT Bhutia.

The message of the Dalai Lama would be read out by Dhondup Dorjee, Tibetan Settlement Officer, Gangtok followed by a ‘Thank You India’ song by Thumi Sambhota Tibetan School and traditional dances by Ghangjong Doekar. A film on ‘undercover in Tibet-Channel 4’ and ‘What remains of us’ would also be screened on the first day. While the second day would feature a panel discussion on ‘Tibet’s Environment’ and a discourse on Buddhism in English. A settlement of the Tibetan community is at Rabongla in South Sikkim while a group have settled in Tshoka on the way to the Dzongri trek in West Sikkim.

Most of them are entrepreneurs while some of them have taken up jobs in the State government and organisations of the Union government.

--UNI

(c) 2009 Published with permission from United News of India.
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