Former Miss Tibet Tsering Chungtak passes away

Former Miss Tibet Tsering Chungtak has passed away after suffering a heart attack Thursday evening at the Tibetan camp Majnu Ka Tilla in Delhi, India. She was 30 years old. Her two brothers were with her when the incident took place. They took her to a hospital, but there she was declared “brought dead”.Tsering Chungtak had won the Miss Tibet 2006 crown. She had participated in the Miss Earth Pageant the same

year. She went to Malaysia for the Miss Tourism Pageant, but had to withdraw after the Chinese government put pressure on the organisers to sash Chungtak with “Miss Tibet-China” rather than “Miss Tibet”.

Chungtak was among the four Miss Tibets who carried the Tibetan Olympics banner during the biggest Tibetan sporting event in 2008. She also went to Taiwan to lead the Tibetan Olympics torch rally in Taipei.

“I am truly sorry for the loss of a talented and intelligent young Tibetan woman. She will be missed and she will never be forgotten,” said Miss Tibet Pageant director Lobsang Wangyal in a post on MissTibet.com.

“I am sending condolences to the bereaved family and friends, and prayers to overcome the pain.”

He also requested friends to say the mantra Om muni muni maha muniye swaha for her.

Chungtak was pursuing her PhD degree in Sociology from Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, but had to discontinue due to health issues.

She was working as a research scholar with Ayur Gyan Nyas, an organisation creating curriculum on secular ethics for students from class one to twelve — one of the Dalai Lama’s commitments to make Secular Ethics widely available to younger generations in schools, colleges, and universities across the world.