Miss Tibet

I’ve never had a real interest in the Miss America pageant. For those of you that know me, I’m sure that’s not too surprising. I did however find myself one weekend attending the Miss Tibet pageant. I’m not exactly sure why I was so intrigued with the idea and why I thought it would be interesting to attend. I do however know that when my family said they were going, it was incredibly easy for me to decide that I wanted to go along.

The Miss Tibet contest has been going on in India since 2002. This year there were four contestants. My Tibetan brother later told me that sometimes there is only one contestant. Not much of a competition, but they still go on with it because they want to make sure to have it every year. There has been a lot of controversy on the whole issue. Many Tibetans do not like the idea of it. Also not many girls are willing to compete in it.

Again, I’ve never seen the Miss America pageant- my only exposure would be Miss Congeniality or the short clip of the Miss South Carolina blooper from a few years ago, and I just don’t think that either counts. So I’m not really sure how different this is than the Miss America pageant. But here is what happened at Miss Tibet 2010.

There was a long introduction and then the girls came out, in jeans and t-shirts to introduce themselves (in English, except one who used a translator). Then there were three rounds, with “entertainment” (dancing, singing, etc) in between each round. The first round was the gown round. The girls came out in western style gowns. A little more modest than ones back in the states usually are, but nonetheless, still western style gowns. The second round was the traditional Tibetan costumes round, followed by a Q&A round.

As I sat there watching these Tibetan young women “strutting their stuff” down the walkway, I couldn’t help but think about how shy Tibetan girls and women usually are. I thought back to just the weekend before at the Amdo Party I attended and how each of the females struggled with their shyness to perform in front of everyone. Each and everyone one of them. How much harder would it be for a Tibetan young woman to wear “revealing” clothing and “strut” in front of hundreds (if not maybe thousands?) of people?

Anyway, here are a few other things that Miss America probably doesn’t have:

- English, Hindi and Tibetan languages being used

- A Tibetan man in a bright, metallically light blue suit, with long flowing hair, coming out and doing a jump-kick center stage (at least I’d never seen that before, that’s for sure)

- Monks in the audience

- The audience reciting the “Om Mani Padme Hum” prayer before we officially began

- Young Indian girls performing an interpretive dance of the story of Buddha’s life

- A dog making his way through the audience and reaching the front stage