A daylong talk and creative workshop titled: Traditional Relationships: Bridging Borders with Tibet, was held at the Fr. Matteo Ricci Auditorium of St Joseph’s College, North Point Darjeeling, yesterday.
The departments of English, mass communication and political science had jointly organized this programme where poet and ‘Free Tibet’ activist Tenzin Tsundue from Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh was the resource person.
At the beginning of the first session Prof Samir Sharma, head of the department of political science introduced Mr Tsundue and the student volunteers greeted him.
In the first session, the speaker highlighted the geo-political as well as historico-cultural connect of the entire Himalayan region stretching from Ladakh to Arunachal Pradesh including China, Tibet, Bhutan and Nepal.
The regions ethnic variety and rich bio-diversity was highlighted in a presentation with visual delights that left the audience in awe.
He touched on politics, history, language, archaeology, literature et al underscoring the sovereignty of India’s territories as well as the need to preserve one’s distinct identity with the aid of language, history, culture and tradition. The talk also threw light on varied issues from the importance of Manchu in Chinese history to the McMahon Line.
The second session post-lunch was introduced by Prof Viram Rai the present head of the department of mass communication and journalism. The resource person took the audience down the trail of creativity harping on the importance of finding one’s own voice.