By Sudeshna Sarkar
As a child she tended cattle at a farm before her family fled China and now, at 20, Dolma Tsering, the first Miss Tibet, is becoming an icon for young Tibetans in India, Nepal and elsewhere.
Slant-eyed, lissom beauty Dolma made history last year when she was crowned in the first beauty pageant of the diaspora organised in Himachal Pradesh, home to the seat of the Tibetan leader in exile, Dalai Lama, at Dharamsala.
Dolma, whose pop band Music Tibet is performing in Kathmandu now, said she won bouquets as well as brickbats after winning the first Tibet beauty pageant.
She and the organisers of the contest were accused by conservative Tibetans of diluting the cause of a displaced people still struggling against being made part of China forcibly. However, a lot of Tibetan youths admired her initiative.
The soft-spoken, refugee-turned-model believes that far from denigrating the cause of a free Tibet, the pageant has given a platform to “women from the ‘Roof of the World'”.
“A beauty pageant is not just clothes and makeup,” she says.
“You need confidence more than anything else. Besides being a great opportunity for all Tibetan women to show our culture to the world, the Miss Tibet pageant gives you confidence and experience. Then you can go anywhere in the world,” Dolma told IANS.
It has been true in her case. The daughter of a farmer in Minyak village in eastern Tibet, Dolma grew up helping her parents herd yaks and sheep.
Now, she has already been to Malaysia and Mexico to take part in pageants there and her sights are set on Canada, Australia and Italy.
But she will no longer be travelling as Miss Tibet. She handed over her crown to her successor, Miss Tibet 2003 Tsering Kyi, who was the only contender at this year’s pageant.
Dolma lauds Kyi’s courage. “I think she was great because she was not afraid to come forward though she was alone,” Dolma said.
“She took this great responsibility of trying to do what she could for her culture. We need more people like her to do great things for Tibet.”
As for herself, Dolma is now going to take Tibetan culture wherever Tibetans reside as part of a music band.
Lobsang Wangyal, the pony-tailed Tibetan entrepreneur who came up with the idea of starting the Miss Tibet contest, put together Music Tibet three months ago.
Dolma, as one of its seven members, sings Tibetan songs and dances to English and Bollywood numbers.
The band travels to Karnataka in February in time for a major Tibetan festival. Then they would be hitting a long trail to Canada, Australia, Italy and other countries with a sizeable Tibetan population.
In between, Dolma is also shooting ad films.
The school dropout, whose family fled to India eight years ago after her father, a political prisoner, was released from jail after 21 years, began her career in the arc light as a model in New Delhi. After her mother had an accident, she left school to start a shop in New Delhi, selling shoes, socks and garments.
There she met a model from Bangalore who encouraged her to join the profession. Her portfolio says she has worked in the Lakme Fashion Show and modelled products for an Italian agency.
The ad films are also a preparation for hitting the silver screen. In April 2004 Dolma will make her movie debut in a Tibetan love story directed by Tsering Gurmey in which she faces a pair of heroes. Does Bollywood beckon after that?
But the girl, who as a determined 12-year-old walked stealthily in the night for 21 days to escape to Nepal, says she doesn’t have the nerve for it – yet.
“Indian girls are very beautiful and very confident. I need more experience and exposure before I can think of seeking a role in Bollywood.”
