New York, April 14 - A first part of Tibet Festival, "Taste of the Tibetan Culture", concludes successfully in Santiago, the Capital of Chile, on April 12 with the presentation of the two well-attended workshops, "Awakening Kindness with Music" by Nawang Khechog and "Tibetan Holistic Healing" by Dr. Namgyal Tenzin on April 11 and 12 respectively.

"Taste of the Tibetan Culture", a showcase of the Tibetan history, art, and culture, included two segments. The first segment included live demonstration of the construction of the Sand Mandala by the monks of Namgyal Monastery, musical concerts by Nawang Khechog and Chilean musicians, workshops, and a series of film show and talk on Tibet. The second segment included three major photo exhibitions - "Living Treasures of Buddhism", a portrait of living Buddhist masters of the world, by Mexican artist Angel Alcala, "A Long Look Homeward", a contemporary history of Tibet, by Tibet Museum in Dharamsala, and "Journey to Dharamsala" by Chilean photographers Pablo Rosenblatt and Chantal Bernsau - and the exhibition of the private collection of Tibetan religious objects of bronze statues and thanka paintings. The second segment of the festival is scheduled to go on until April 24.

The festival, which was held at the Chilean Cultural Institute of Las Condes, was organized by the Office of Tibet in New York in collaboration with the Buddhist Community of Chile headed by Mr. Abdullah Ommidvar, Chairman of the Corporacion Cultural Tibetana, and Mr. Fernando Salinas, Chairman of the Advisory Council of Centro Choe Khor Ling. It was formally opened by Mr. Tsewang Phuntso, TGIE's Liaison Officer to Latin America, on the evening of April 5 with a grant opening ceremony attended by 300 guests. Mr. Phuntso gave a brief introduction on the purpose of organizing the cultural event. He also paid a rich tribute to the late Pope John Paul II . In his introductory speech, Mr. Abdullah Ommidvar recollected his passion and association with the Tibet and gave a concise account of Tibet before and after the invasion by the People's Republic of China. The Director of the Chilean Cultural Institute of Las Condes briefly spoke on the beauty of the Tibetan culture.

During the week-long festival, stream of Chileans came to see the exhibitions, watch video films, and listen to talks on Tibet and also acquainted with the Tibetan culture. The video film shows included: Little Buddha, Heart of Tibet, The Spirit of Tibet, Himalaya, The Cup, The Red Flag Over Tibet, Kundun, and Dharamsala.

While observing the two monks from Namgyal Monastery carefully created the sand mandala, all the Chilean visitors were enthralled by the amount of patience, concentration, steadiness of hand required to create such a beautiful and exceedingly intricate work of art.

On April 8 and 9, Nawang Khechog has, literally, stolen the heart of the Chileans, when he presented two house-full consecutive musical concerts with well-known Chilean musicians. Mr. Fernando Salinas, one of the coordinators of the festival commented that, with melody of Nawang Khechog's flute, there would be no problem in drawing huge crowd for the future concerts.

Apart from the musical concerts, the lecture by Dr. Namgyal Tenzin on the Tibetan medicine also pooled a huge crowd. Nearly three hundreds people attended his lecture.

The Tibet Festival held in Santiago, Chile, was one of the biggest Tibetan Festival ever held in Latin America. The festival turned out to be a big success.