Tsering Chungtak

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tsering Chungtak (born December 25, 1984) is a Tibetan beauty queen who represented Tibet in the 2006 edition of the environmentally oriented beauty pageant, Miss Earth. She is the first Tibetan woman to participate in any major international beauty contest, which created worldwide publicity.^[1][2]

Contents 1 Miss Tibet 2006 pageant 2 Miss Earth 2006 participation 3 Tibetan Olympics 4 Quotes 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Miss Tibet 2006 pageant

Chungtak, a student of sociology in a New Delhi college, was crowned Miss Tibet in 2006 at a contest in the northern Indian town of Dharmsala, home to a majority of Tibetan exiles and the seat of Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.^[3] Born in Shillong, she is an alumna of lower-Tibetan Community Village School. She also took the title of Miss Photogenic after securing 1740 votes of the total 3909 votes cast in the online public poll; held in the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts (TIPA), the finale of the Miss Tibet 2006 contest drew a large crowd of local Tibetan youth. She received a scholarship cheque of 1,00,000 Indian rupees.^[4]

[edit] Miss Earth 2006 participation

She made worldwide headlines for her participation in the Miss Earth 2006 beauty pageant.^[5][6][7] Aside from her environmental cause, she raised international attentions regarding the Tibetan struggle for freedom, after China occupied Tibet by military force in 1951, claiming a centuries-old sovereignty over the Himalayan region. A Tibetan uprising was crushed by the Chinese government in 1959, when the Dalai Lama fled to India.^[8][9] She also advocated for the boundaries of acceptable social etiquette towards modernity, in a traditionally conservative Tibetan culture, where most grown women wear ankle-length dresses. Nonetheless, her participation in the pageant received an approval from the Dalai Lama.^[10][11] She made more headlines in December 2007 when she withdrew her participation in the Miss Tourism contest, a minor international beauty pageant held in Malaysia, after organizers reacted to pressure from Beijing and asked her to add "China" to her "Miss Tibet" title by wearing a sash labeled "Miss Tibet-China".^{[12][13][14][15]}

[edit] Tibetan Olympics

Tsering led a run with Tibetans who live in Taiwan, at Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, Sunday, February 24, 2008, in Taipei, as part of the torch relay for the Tibetan Olympics to be held in Dharamsala, India, the seat of the Tibetan government in exile, on May 15, 2008. The relay for a sports event organized by Tibetans in exile to counter the Beijing Olympics arrived on Taiwan Sunday on the third leg of a 10-city tour. ^[16] The photo of Tsering Chungtak taken by Associated Press in Taiwan was the "pick of the day" of XPRESS Newspaper, sister paper of Gulf News, which is based in the United Arab Emirates; the newspaper looks daily for the best photos from around the globe.^[17]

[edit] Quotes

• "When we went for a motorcade I carried our flag and went by waving in the air. And am proud to represent my country."^[18]
• "The Tibetan issue is same as ever, China is in control of Tibet and there is no freedom in Tibet. This is all happening at a time when China is gearing up to build a clean image for itself in the run-up to Beijing Olympics."^[19]
• It was a lifetime experience for me. It's an injustice.^[20]
• "The contest is a message to the world that Tibet is not a part of China." ^[21]
• I felt that this was not acceptable to me at all. The Tibetan issue is still the same as ever. China is in control of Tibet, and there is no freedom in Tibet. China constantly violates human rights, and threatens the environment in Tibet, causing concern about the very survival of the Tibetan people.^[22]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official Miss Earth website
• Official Miss Tibet website