Yesterday I photographed the press conference for the opening of the Tibetan Olympics. It’s going to be a small event featuring about 13 male athletes and 7 female. Lobsang Wangyal is the event organiser, the primary event sponsor, the event photographer and almost all other roles, except for the event cook! He is a photo journalist who was the founder of the “Miss Tibet” pageant that began in 2002. The Miss Tibet pageant caused much controversy over the objectification of Tibetan women. Lobsang blamed the lack of initial participants in that pageant as a problem with ’shyness.’ It seems that he is following the same logic with the Olympics. There is going to be $4000 distributed in prize money among the men, and the same amount among the women. Therefore the small number of female participants is a surprise. Particularly when you take into account that India has an average annual income of $450. The overall gold medalist in mens and womens will win a cash prize of 40,000 rupees ($1000).
Lobsang, being a photojournalist for AFP and also a general ‘man-about-town’ rallied together a large number of foreign press. I am sure the current situation and news coverage in Tibet has given him added steam. Hopefully the extra coverage and international attention will help Lobsang recoup some of the 8 Lakh debt that he has accrued. (100,000 rupees = 1 Lakh) I even heard that some of the news crew present were shooting a documentarty for Channel 4 in the UK.
Well enough of the facts. It was a nice morning to be there and see all these young aspiring athletes becoming part of what I am sure will become a regular event that coincides with the ‘World’ Olympics. There is only one monk participating, and I am particularly looking forward to seeing him in the shooting category (on Lobsang’s right).
(Many thanks to Justin for getting this setup. Albeit a week into my trip. I have been taking notes, and hope to fill in the blanks)
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