By Tenzin Choephel
Phayul Correspondent
10th December 2006: A beautiful ramp, colorful lights, tables and chairs, chilly winter evening, bonfire and a sell out crowd consisting of Tibetan officials, elders, youngsters and children at the Rox Bar Garden of Hyatt Regency in Boudha, Kathmandu was a perfect ambience of the first ever Miss Dotö 2006 organized by the Dotö Chhugang Welfare Association of Nepal with an objective to preserve and promote Tibetan culture through the medium of beauty contest.
The evening was organized to celebrate the 17th anniversary of Nobel Peace Prize Award to His Holiness the Dalai Lama. The show kick started with ‘Nobel Toyang’ song performance by little students. The five contestants of the title were then introduced, the gorgeous Khampa girls walked down the ramp in different traditional Khampa women attire to introduce themselves to the roaring crowd, they were Miss Lobsang Lhamo of Bawa, Miss Tsetan Dickyi of Chateng, Miss Kunsang Chodon of Lingtsang, Miss Sonam Yangzom of Markham and Miss Tsetan Dolkar of Bawa. The second talent round was both entertaining and a platform for contestant to prove their talents even though all of them danced to the tunes of Shakira and Hindi numbers like ‘kajra re’ except for contestant Lobsang Lhamo presenting a Tibetan song. There was no doubt about the dancing talents of all the contestants, however, some audiences were of opinion that contestants proving their talents in singing or dancing to Tibetan music with a different style would be an icing on cake if this event was to preserve and promote Tibetan culture. The talent round contest seemed mainly between three contestants, talented Lobsang Lhamo singing and dancing a Bawa song, Tsetan Dickyi rocking the crowd with her hip shaking ‘Hips don’t lie’ by Shakira and an overwhelming ‘kajra re’ dance performance by Kunsang Chodon in sexy black tank and long skirt; the other two contestants also put up a fairly good show. The final round of the evening was question answers round in which all the contestants did fairly good in replying to different questions of the judges but one contestant seemed to be struggling with finding right Tibetan words to speak and some preferred to reply in English. Miss Tsetan Dolkar feels that there is still inequality between men and women in our Tibetan society and parents still put many restrictions on girls to freely hang out. The winners in various categories were presented with gifts by Tibetan officials, Miss Lobsang Lhamo won Miss Personality award, Miss Kunsang Chodon won Miss Best Dress, Miss Tsetan Dickyi won Miss Best Talent and Miss Sonam Yangzom won Miss Friendship. And the winners of the first Miss Dotö 2006 were 2nd runners up Miss Tsetan Dickyi, 1st runners up Miss Lobsang Lhamo and the winner was Miss Kunsang Chodon, a 21 years old BBA student of Himalayan White House College in Kathmandu; she could definitely be one of the most eligible and ideal candidate for Miss Tibet 2007. Right after the show, Tibetan media persons caught up for a brief moment backstage with Miss Dotö, she said while still struggling with her tears of joy, “I am so very happy… we had one week training and many rounds of contest were already decided, on the basis of that and the final rounds this evening I was chosen…. there was no swim suit round.. I did not participate in this year’s Miss Tibet contest because I was studying and could not miss my classes… in the future I am not sure if I would participate, I will have to think about it”. The first runner up Miss Lobsang Lhamo said she was not ready for this year’s Miss Tibet, this event has taught her a lot and she definitely hopes to participate in the next year’s Miss Tibet contest.
The evening was also full of entertainment with performances by artistes and school children between rounds of contest; the presentation of traditional dresses of Doto Region of Tibet by five young Khampa men was marvelous. Mr. Lhakpa Gyaltsen La, president of the Doto Association handed over appreciation award to all sponsors, performers and volunteers. Mr. Lhakpa Gyaltsen said that this might create a platform for girls to prove and prepare themselves for Miss Tibet in future, however, the organization has not yet made any contact with Miss Tibet organizers for any possible future collaboration. The girls were trained and the event was choreographed by local Nepali choreographer Niraj Shakya. Tibetan would definitely love to see the continuation of the show next year with active participation of more young beautiful talented Tibetan girls from all over.
