Gangtok Tibetan girl in a traditional costume

A Tibetan girl in a traditional costume at the Tibet Festival that began in Gangtok on Friday. The Tibetan community in Sikkim is celebrating the festival to commemorate the 50 year of its exile in India. The five-day fest will showcase Tibetan music and dance, costume, art and crafts, cuisine, Buddhist rituals, medicine and astrology. ‘This festival has been organised to acknowledge, honour and thank the government and people of India and especially Sikkim for providing us a refuge in which the Tibetan community has thrived. We will remain ever grateful for all that India has done for us,’ a spokesperson for the organising committee said. The festival was inaugurated by Sikkim public health engineering minister TT Bhutia. The message of the 14th Dalai Lama was read out by Dhondup Dorjee, the Tibetan settlement officer of Gangtok, followed by a ‘Thank You India’ song by Thumi Sambhota Tibetan School and traditional dances by Ghangjong Doekar. Two films, on Undercover in Tibet-Channel 4 , and What remains of us were screened on the first day. Around 3,500 Tibetan families live in Sikkim. Picture by Prabin Khaling