March 25-31, 1996, at the TIPA Grounds, Dharamsala

Dharamsala, March 18. Shoton, the annual festival of Tibetan operas will start from March 25 at the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts' grounds in a grand finale to Monlam, the Great Prayer Festival. The week-long festival will feature such classics as Thondup and Donyod, Choegyal Norsang, Pema Woebar, Dowa Zangmo, and Zugkyi Nyima. Opera companies from Tibetan Settlements in Bylakuppe in South India, Mainpat and Bandara in the Midwest, Orissa in the West Coast, and the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts of Dharamsla will perform during the festival. The only Tibetan opera company outside of India participating in the festival is from Kathmandu. His Holiness the Dalai Lama will inaugurate the festival.

Shoton, since its revival in exile, is held in every year in April, but according to the organizers, this year the festival is being held at the conclusion of Monlam with the expressed wishes of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to give the visitors from Tibet, and the many faithfuls from around the world who have come to attend the Monlam festival and the teachings the opportunity to take part in this cultural celeberation.

There will be two days of conference at the conclusion of the festival and ways to promote and poplurise this art form will be discussed.

Reported by Sonam Dargyay in Delhi for WTN News