One of the finest Tibetan folk artists of the era, Tashi Dhondup Sharzur, aka Techung has been awarded the 2018 New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) Artist Fellowship Programme. The veteran Tibetan artist is among 89 artists throughout New York State from various disciplines of arts to be awarded this year’s version of the program.
The New York Foundation for the Arts Artist Fellowship Program will distribute a bucket fund of $623,000 among those artists where each one of them will be receiving cash grants of $7,000. According to reports, this is the 32nd year that artists are being chosen and honoured with the fellowship from the foundation. It is also noteworthy that the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) supports the initiative.
“This Fellowship is such an honour for my work in Tibetan music and culture. I have dedicated my life for this and I am super happy that this great State of New York have given me this recognition. I dedicate this moment of joy to my teachers and The Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts for entrusting artists like me with an important role to play in preserving and revitalizing art in the Tibetan community and in the world.” Techung told to the media while speaking the award.
Techung is a Tibetan folk singer and musician. Since childhood he was trained in traditional Tibetan dance and music at the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts (TIPA) in McLeod Ganj, in northern India, where the Dalai Lama and the Central Tibetan Administration is based, according to the report from Tibetsun.com.
He was at the Institute for 17 years studying all aspects of the Tibetan performing arts — folk, court, and opera — from elder Tibetan masters who had escaped into exile after the Chinese occupation of Tibet. His dual goals are to revive Tibetan music within the Tibetan community, and to share the unique Tibetan culture with the world community.
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