Tenzin Mariko | |
---|---|
Born | Tenzin Ugen |
Years active | 2015–present |
Tenzin Mariko (born 1997) is a Tibetan model and LGBTQ icon. She is the first openly transgender Tibetan in the public eye. [1]
Born as Tenzin Ugen to Tsering Gonpo and Chime Yangzom in Bir, Himachal Pradesh, she was sent to the Samdrup Darjay Choling Monastery in Darjeeling to become a Buddhist monk. At the age of 13, Mariko was sent to Tergar Institute in Kathmandu to further her monastic studies. She left the institute and returned to Dharamshala at the age of 16. [2] Tenzin also went to school in Delhi to become a professional makeup artist. When she came out, people encouraged Tenzin to become a dancer or entertainer. [3] She currently lives in the suburb of McLeod Ganj in Dharamshala. [4]
In the early 1950s, Mariko's parents fled Tibet during the annexation of Tibet by the People's Republic of China and moved to Dharamsala. Her parents had five children; they were all boys and were expected to be monks. [5]
Mariko's first appearance as a transgender model was at the 2015 Miss Tibet pageant held in Dharamshala. In 2018, she participated in MTV India's Ace of Space 1 . [6] Tenzin Mariko gave a TedTalk on TEDxDharmshala on August 29, 2019. Titled “The Monk Who Traded His Robes for Skirts”, Mariko narrates her story of accepting her sexuality and coming out as the first Tibetan transgender woman. [7]
Miss Tibet is an annual beauty pageant held in McLeod Ganj, India. It is produced by Lobsang Wangyal Productions.
Lobsang Tenzin, better known by the titles Professor Venerable Samdhong Rinpoche and to Tibetans as the 5th Samdhong Rinpoche, is a Tibetan Buddhist monk and politician who served as the Prime Minister of the cabinet of the Central Tibetan Administration, the Tibetan government-in-exile based in Dharamshala, India.
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Khensur Rinpoche, Geshe Tashi Tsering is a Tibetan teacher in the Gelug tradition. He lived and taught in the West for many years in Australia, New Zealand, India and Tibet.
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Tenzin Tsundue is a poet, writer and Tibetan refugee and activist. As of 2019 he has been taken into preventive custody, arrested or jailed 16 times for short durations for his activism by Indian authorities, as India does not allow Tibetans to engage in anti-China activities in India. When he was 22, he travelled to Tibet. However, he was arrested and sent back to India, "They told me I was born in India and so I did not belong to Tibet."
Tsering Dorjee Bawa is a Tibetan actor, producer, musician and dancer of Tibetan descent. He acted in the Oscar nominated film ‘Himalaya' in 1999 and has created the original soundtrack with Michael Becker for 2009 Emmy Award-winning documentary ‘The Woman of Tibet - A Quiet Revolution’. He was nominated twice for outstanding featured performance in play, male for his off-Broadway show, 'The Oldest Boy'.
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Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBTQ) people in the Tibet encounter specific legal and social challenges not faced by non-LGBT residents. The Tibetan Plateau, spanning areas under the sovereignty of both the People's Republic of China and the Republic of India, has variations in the legal treatment of LGBT individuals between these nations. Since 1997 in China and 2018 in India, all forms of same-sex sexual activities were legalised. However, in both nations, same-sex couples lack the rights to marry or adopt children, and there is no provision for common law marriages, same-sex marriage, civil unions, or issue partnership certificates.
Tsering Wangmo Dhompa is the first Tibetan female poet to be published in English. She was raised in India and Nepal. Tsering received her BA from Lady Shri Ram College, University of Delhi. She pursued her MA from University of Massachusetts and her MFA in creative writing from San Francisco State University. She has a Ph.D. in literature from the University of California, Santa Cruz and is currently an assistant professor in the English Department at Villanova University. Her first book of poems, Rules of the House, published by Apogee Press in 2002, was a finalist for the Asian American Literary Awards in 2003. Other publications include, most recently a chapbook Revolute ,My Rice Tastes Like the Lake, In the Absent Everyday, and two chapbooks: In Writing the Names and Recurring Gestures. In Letter For Love she delivered her first short story. In 2013, Penguin India published Tsering's first full-length book, A Home in Tibet, in which she chronicles her successive journeys to Tibet and provides ethnographic details of ordinary Tibetans inside Tibet.
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