Miss Tibet Generates Lively Yak Among Exiles

One critic says it is "ill-timed, undesirable [and] uncalled for". Others insist that the event is a great step forward for a country that effectively vanished 50 years ago. Either way, the main topic for discussion among Tibetan exiles is no longer the recent thaw between the Dalai Lama and China, but next week's first Miss Tibet beauty pageant.

The event is being held in the north Indian town of Dharamsala, home to the Dalai Lama and Tibet's government in exile. The winner will be named next Sunday after a closed-door swimsuit round and a public question and answer session.

But the event is as much about politics as beauty.

Organisers say they hope that the participants will draw international attention to the continued plight of Tibetans living under Chinese occupation. The normally conservative Tibet Women's Associa tion has given its blessing to the event, with the motto "Women with wisdom from the roof of the world".

"As long as it is handled properly, I see nothing negative in it," Dolma Gyari, the female deputy speaker of Tibet's exiled parliament told the Guardian yesterday. "The only thing that surprises me is that none of the judges appear to be Tibetan."

But some Tibetans have described it as immoral, "un-Tibetan" and "un-Buddhist".

The competition's organiser, Lobsang Wangyal, has dismissed them as short-sighted. Young Tibetan women were not just interested in traditional culture, but in a full range of experiences, he said.

"There is a tendency for Tibetans to be only seen as a people in struggle against the Chinese, as a culture predominantly made up of Buddhist monks and nuns, as nomads who herd yaks," he said. Some 120,000 Tibetans had fled since 1959 and were building successful lives abroad, he said.

But critics have pointed out that 90% of Tibetan women still live in Tibet, and are therefore unable to take part.

"Miss Tibet is another way of saying Free Tibet," said Tenzin Deki, a student whose photograph appears on the competition's website, www.misstibet.com

Last night a spokesman for the Dalai Lama's office distanced the political and spiritual leader from the event. "It is a private enterprise. We have nothing to do with it," he said.