Elated Tibetans celebrate with fervour

Dehradun, Oct 17 (UNI) Elated over the resolution of the US House of Representatives to give Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama the Congressional Gold Medal, its highest civilian honour, the Tibetan community in Uttarakhand today celebrated the occasion with grandeur and fervor by taking out a procession and holding cultural programmes and distributing sweets here.

Tibetan Monks in their traditional maroon robes and school children in uniform along with general Tibetans took out a procession all around the capital city. The procession was headed by a group of monks playing traditional Tibetan musical instruments like Tibetan Cornet, Tingsha, Jaling and drums.

The musical group was followed by people donning masks. The procession went round the city distributing sweets to the people on their way.

Earlier school children presented various cultural programmes that included traditional tibetan dances like 'Guoxie', 'Duixie' 'Guozhang' and 'Xie' at Parade Ground in the presence of MLA Karen Hilton and Ganesh Joshi.

Mr Damdul, member of organising unit Tibetan Welfare Office said that a similar programmes would be organised tomorrow by various Tibetan Organisations in their respective areas all over the state.

Later in the day today, the Tibetan leader will receive the Congressional Gold Medal at the Capitol Hill ceremony for his ''fight for democracy, freedom, and Tibet's cultural heritage through a negotiated settlement with Beijing based on autonomy within the People's Republic'', with US President George W Bush present at the ceremony.

This will be the first time a sitting US President will appear with the Dalai Lama at a public event.

UNI