By Tenzin Nyidon
DHARAMSHALA, Jan. 10: The participation of Tenzin Paldon, representing Tibet at an international beauty pageant held in Cambodia came to an abrupt end after the Chinese government exerted pressure on the organisers. The incident has sparked concerns over transnational political pressure from China infringing upon the freedom of expression and representation of Tibetans at global events.
Tenzin Paldon, the former Miss Tibet, recently revealed on her Instagram handle that her participation in the prestigious international pageant, Miss Global 2023 in Cambodia, was abruptly halted due to her vocal representation of her country and identity. Her video on Instagram revealed startling details on how the Chinese government exerted pressure on the organisers, resulting in her disqualification from representing Tibet in the international competition.
Paldon displayed her support for Tibet by wearing the “Tibet” sash and shouting “Bhod Gyal Llo” (Free Tibet) during the initial stages of the event. Subsequently, she was instructed to conceal her Tibetan heritage and conditions were imposed upon her participation. Paldon said that she was barred from wearing the sash with “Tibet” marked on it. Fellow contestant from Taiwan was also instructed to wear a sash with the designation of Republic of China (RoC). Paldon’s refusal to comply led to her exclusion from the entire event of Miss Global 2023.
The removal of the Tibetan participant from the international pageant, netizens say, is due to China’s long standing fear of colliding with their narrative of Tibet being a part of China and challenge its dominance in Tibet where its totalitarian government has forcefully ruled since 1959.
“China is still scared of Tibet being represented after 64 years of occupation. China has won only Tibetan land but not the spirit of the Tibetan people. As long as one Tibetan is alive, Tibet is here to stay, what may!” a user on X (formerly Twitter) wrote.
“We are so proud of you @tezepaldon la. You have succeeded in exposing China’s insecurities. The reverberations of your “Bhod Gyal Lo” surely gave China a restless night. This is a huge victory for all of us. Despite China resorting to using their financial influence out of insecurity and fear, be assured they cannot defeat you. Their cowardly action only indicates that they don’t have the courage to send their representative for a fair and shoulder-to-shoulder competition on the global stage with you,” another netizen on Instagram wrote.
The Miss Tibet pageant has had several confrontations with China in the past. Many Miss Tibets over the years have been subject to pressure from China at international pageants. The Director of Miss Tibet pageant Lobsang Wangyal announced last month that the pageant will be held this year after a five year haitus.
2 Responses
Tibet belongs to the Tibetans and not China.
Tibetans are being persecuted inside occupied Tibet and humiliated outside Tibet by the evil regime of communist China. We have to admit that since the beginning of the year 2000, the Tibet issue has gradually disappeared from international headlines and is now almost non-existent! This is happening even while HH The Dalai Lama is still around with us. What will it look like in his absence? The communist regime has calculated that the Tibetan struggle will fizzle out after the demise of the Dalai Lama! It almost looks as though their prognosis is coming true! One has to wonder why the Tibet issue has suffered such downward spiral to oblivion? We have to blame ourselves for being lazy, coward and gullible! It is a fact that there is not a single nation on earth which have not been occupied by another nation in the annals of their history. However, all of them never gave up their will and determination to wrest their country back by fighting the occupier. It may have taken hundreds of years but in the end their resistance ultimately made the colonists and occupiers life very miserable and forced them to vacate their ill-gotten land! Tibet was never occupied by a foreign power until the 20th century since 127 CE when it came into existence. Yet, Tibetan leaders could not muster the courage to fight the enemy and instead capitulated to the occupiers will. This slave mentality has let to our present predicament. Tibetans are made to believe that if we behave properly without offending the CCP, somehow, the communist party will be gracious enough to accomodate the wishes of the Tibetans! The whole struggle is based on the mercy of the CCP without any resistance to the brutal and illegal occupation. We were told that if we seek independence, the CCP will be more inclined to destroy Tibetan culture, religion and identity because of a perceived threat of separation but if we grovel at the feet of the CCP with the U-Mey Lam, the CCP will not destroy our culture, religion and identity!!! However, despite four decades of consistently reciting the mantra of “we are not seeking independence”, the CCP continues to call the Dalai Lama a “separatist” and worse, Tibet’s culture, religion and identity including the historical name of our nation (TIBET)is being erased from the face of earth and the memory of mankind! The adherents of the U-Mey Lam are devoted to never utter a word of offence against the CCP nor protest for the destruction of Tibet’s unique culture and identity but instead sit on their hands for eternity! This shocking laziness, irresponsibility and misguided policy is the root cause of our present predicament! If this continues, the Tibet issue is bound to die out like a dying flame. The treatment of Miss Tibet-Tenzin PELDON by Cambodia and the Beauty pageant is a clear case that the CCP has not lost any of its anti-Tibet zest and continues to denigrate the Dalai Lama and humiliate Tibetan identities like Miss Tibet! There was a time in late 1990s when a Miss Tibet representative was able to compete in a beauty pageant in Malaysia when Mahathir Mohammad was the Prime Minister of that country! He was no friend of China and didn’t bulk under Chinese pressure! Cambodia is a puppet of communist China. In fact it’s the only friend of China which is another dictatorship in South East Asia! China has no real friend in the world except Cambodia! Even North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has no love lost for Xi Jinping and his CCP cronies! Miss Tibet-Tenzin Palden had all the necessary requirements as per their declaration and therefore eligible by any account. However, the evil CCP felt threatened of Miss Tibet gaining stardom and jumped in the fray to smother her before it was too late! The CCP thief who stole our country is ever vigilant in order to thwart any untoward publicity questioning its illegal occupation of Tibet. No matter what the CCP does, the Tibetan people will never give up in the struggle to decolonise Tibet and regain our rightful independence! The CCP has put its boot on the neck of the Tibetan people and attempts to justify this brutal attack by false propaganda, intimidation and economic coercion of other countries or else apportion all the blame on the “Dalai Clique” as scape goats! The thing they should know is, everything that is GOING WRONG IN OCCUPIED TIBET IS OWING TO THE ILLEGAL OCCUPATION OF TIBET BY COMMUNIST CHINA JUST AS EVERYTHING THAT IS GOING WRONG IN PALESTINE IS THE OCCUPATION OF PALESTINIAN NATION BY ISRAEL! THIS IS THE CRUX OF THE MATTER THE CCP MUST ACKNOWLEDGE!
For those naive Tibetans who think, we can co-exist and survive with communist China, here is a historical precedence that happened before 1947. Mahatma Gandhi pleaded with Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the founding father of Pakistan to remain with Hindu India and not seek a seperate State of Pakistan by assuring him the survival of the Muslims and their culture and religion within Hindu India. Mohammad Ali Jinnah retorted, “Not all Hindus are Mahatma Gandhis”! The thing Tibetans must understand is that the Dalai Lama is a holy man and his intentions are pure like the snow on the crest of mountains but the CHINESE COMMUNISTS ARE NOT DALAI LAMAS!!! Most Tibetans forget this and equate a holy man such as the Dalai Lama with the most vile bunch of criminal gang such as the CCP who only believe in the use of the most base human instinct of oppression, murder, lies and deception as a means to ingratiate themselves! The CCP’s ultimate goal is total destruction of Tibet, its unique culture, religion and identity and integrate it with China by NOT LEAVING A TRACE OF TIBET and ITS PEOPLE!