By Kassie Korich
Miss Washington Kristen Eddings returned home to Silverdale this week after spending 14 days immersed in the culture of India.
As a spokeswoman for Bridges to Understanding, Eddings — who was crowned Miss Washington three months ago — traveled with the organization to Dharamsala, India where she participated in workshops with the Tibetan Childrens’ Village.
She describes the trip as “fascinating,” “beautiful” and “enriching.” The experience not only allowed her to represent her home state, but it also gave her a stronger foundation for her role as a spokeswoman for the group.
“Having the opportunity to experience one of their trips first-hand, has given me much more material when I talk about the organization,” she said.
International education is a vital issue that is close to her heart. It has been her platform throughout her pageant competitions including Miss America, which she will be competing in this January.
While visiting the Tibetan Childrens’ Village — one of the largest Tibetan refugee outposts — Eddings and fellow Bridges to Understanding mentors used their recently honed photography skills to teach the children of the village how to use cameras. Together they made digital stories, providing a glimpse into Tibetan culture.
“The children, this time, chose to make a story about prayer,” Eddings explained with a smile. “They took pictures of Buddha symbols and children praying.”
As part of the project, Eddings was paired with Tenzin Gakyi, a girl from the village who reminded Eddings a lot of herself.
“She invited me to be a part of her life, it was as if I had become her older sister,” she said. “She was definitely my favorite part of the trip, all of the kids were. They had such a great outlook on life and seized each opportunity.”
Eddings also was able to partake in a cultural box exchange through International Education and Resource Network (iEARN) USA. She teamed with the organization to bring a cultural box made by fourth-grade students from Seattle-based Coe Elementary School to students in India. A seventh-grade class at the Tibetan Children’s Village made their own culture box, filled with items symbolizing their culture, to be returned to Coe Elementary.
Eddings was intrigued to see what items the Tibetan children choose to include in their box.
“It provided a great understanding of their culture,” she said. “It was filled with poetry, different writing examples, pictures of the Dalai Lama and prayer beads .. The basic principle of international education is connecting students so they can understand each other.”
In what Eddings calls a “coincidental happening,” she also had the opportunity to participate in the Miss Tibet pageant.
“I showed up the second night of Miss Tibet not thinking I would be participating,” she explained.
It didn’t take long for the producer of the program to learn of her presence. Not only was she asked to be a judge in the competition, but it was requested that she light the opening torch.
And in describing the pageant itself, she explains it as being very different from anything she has experienced before.
“Miss Tibet is huge and so controversial because portions of Dharamsala don’t agree with it,” Eddings said. “But everyone attends even if they don’t agree and they are very vocal. I told Reuters (in an interview), ‘I feel like this is a cultural explosion.’ If (the contestant) wasn’t liked by the audience she would be booed. But then if she did something extraordinary, the audience would support her.”
Eddings says she also became very comfortable with reporters at the event as she was interviewed by a range of journalists including those from CNN India, Swiss Times and the Christian Science Monitor.
“The questions ranged from ‘Tell us your view on the Tibetan Freedom movement’ to feminism and Miss America,” she said.
Looking back on the experience, Eddings is grateful for the chance to have made the trip, which was made possible by donations from the community.
“It was financially covered by many members of this community, Rotarians and members of the Miss Washington family,” she said. “I have many people to thank for this trip … Going into Miss Washington, I had only hoped I would be able to travel to another country. I felt so honored to bring Miss Washington to another place.”
