TIPA Marks 51st Founding Anniversary

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Tibet.net
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gyalwang Karmapa with artistes of the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts during its 51st founding anniversary function in Dharamsala on 11 August 2010/Photo: Drubgyu Nyima

Dharamshala: The Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts on Wednesday celebrated fifty-one years of excellence in preserving and promoting Tibet's traditional theatrical arts and culture in exile.

His Eminence the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje graced the Yarkyi ceremony.

In his brief address, Gyalwang Karmapa said:" Among many cultural and religious learning centres established by His Holiness the Dalai Lama after coming to exile, the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts has become the most important centre of the preservation of Tibetan art and culture."

"The primary responsibility of TIPA is to preserve and promote the vast repertoire of theatrical arts that has been passed from generation to generation in Tibet. Therefore, we must express gratitude to the institutes' past and present members who have ceaselessly contributed towards fulfilling His Holiness's wishes and the good of Tibet's secular and religious heritage. I called on the members to continuously make concerted efforts," Gyalwang Karmapa added.

The institute has 112 members, including artistes, instructors, administrative staff and craftsmen.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama established TIPA in August 1959 to preserve the traditional performing arts, as every aspect of Tibetan culture and civilisation was threatened with the Communist Chinese occupation of Tibet.