McLeod Ganj Dharamshala: An aspiring environmental scientist, 22 year old Jyoti Dogra was declared the Himalayan beauty, not just for her looks but also for her eloquent speech and presence of mind at the Miss Himalaya 2014 beauty pageant that concluded after a two hour glittering show here, yesterday evening.
Shikha Sharma, a 20 year old BA student was declared First Runners Up and 22 year old Dawa Dema, a management student was the second runners up after the two day contest.
In all five contestants, three from Himachal Pradesh and two from Bhutan, were vying for the Himalayan beauty crown.
Jyoti, a resident of Bhagsu Nag, Dharamshala and a M.Sc. Environmental Sciences student at Shahpur Central University clinched the title in the interview round.
In one of the questions put to her by the judges Dr Charu Sharma, an Associate Professor at the Department of English, Government College Dharamshala, and Ms Rashmi Nag, a painter, creative artist, and social activist about what is success in life, Jyoti’s thoughtful reply was, “It’s not the amount of money that measures success, but the knowledge, the sense of sharing, and satisfaction one has with what they do.”
Spread over two day, the contestants were judged in five rounds.
Besides the title, the winner won an Rs 1 lakh case prize and the first runner up was given a Rs 50,000 cash award.
Pema Khandu, Tourism and Water resource minister of Arunachal Pradesh sponsored the first prize. The second prize was sponsored by a Japanese organisation Rainbow Children, and the third prize came from the United Nations for a Free Tibet (UNFFT).
Miss Himalaya Pageant is aimed at empowering young women from the Himalayan region, to celebrate the peace-loving people, their unique culture, and raise concern for the mighty and majestic Himalayas.
Director of the Miss Himalaya pageant Lobsang Wangyal, “we hope to scale up the event next year for which we will strive to have representative contestants from Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, hilly regions of Assam & West Bengal as well as young women from Bhutan and Nepal.”
Photo credit: MissHimalaya.com
As Editor, Ravinder Makhaik leads a team of media professionals at Hill Post.
Spanning a career of over two decades in mass communication, as a Documentary Filmmaker, TV journalist, Print Media journalist and with Online & Social Media, he brings with him a vast experience. He lives in Shimla.
