By Yeshe Choden,
Auckland, New Zealand – The sixteen member group of artistes from The Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts Dharamsala finally touched down in Auckland airport on 18th July. Their much awaited first performance ever in New Zealand took place at Bruce Mason Theatre the same evening to a packed hall of over 500 spectators. The programme featured dances from different regions of Tibet and the costumes showed how varied, vast and rich Tibet’s culture is. It also gave glimpses of the irresistible Tibetan humour in some scenes they did from Tibetan Opera. The monastic ritual dances showered blessings and good luck on the unsuspecting spectators. ‘Break-dance’, acrobatics and tap dance, they had it all from ancient times!
The performance was greatly appreciated with enthusiastic audience participation and a standing ovation at the end. It’s a great shame and pity that this colorfully rich culture’s very survival is endangered in its own country.
New Zealand is under ‘Down Under’ and maybe a very far and small country in the eyes of many, but the support for Tibetans by the people of this country has been huge and consistent. This was made apparent by the Minister of Ethnic affairs Mr.Chris Carter who was granted leave of absence from the Parliament and who flew up specially to watch the performance. As such, it was most appropriate that they be given the opportunity to witness the true culture of Tibet after being bombarded with Sino sized so called ‘Tibetan Dances’ from visiting Communist dance troupes from mainland China.
The whole event was organized by Friends of Tibet headed by its National Chairman, Mr.Thuten Kesang QSM who worked tirelessly to make it materialize and to whom goes the credit of being the one single person who initiated the Tibetan movement in New Zealand in the mid 80’s.
