By Tendar Tsering

DHARAMSHALA, November 28: Tibetan students under the umbrella of the Regional Tibetan Youth Congress, Bangalore bagged the “2011 Rangzen Rolling Basketball Tournament” trophy.

The annual inter-collegiate event organised by the Tibetan Students’ Association Madras (TSAM)was held in the southern Indian city of Chennai from Thursday to Saturday. Tibetan students from Bangalore, Mysore, Vijaywada, and Pondicherry participated in the tournament.

The girls' basketball trophy was retained by the TSAM team for the third consecutive year.

The tournament was held at Chennai’s 'Jaylalithaa Stadium,' named after Tamil Nadu’s incumbent chief minister J. Jayalalithaa.

G.A. Rajkumar, an IAS officer and Aasha Reddy, a long time supporter of Tibet were the chief guests at the final match.

“Since a united youth is the strongest asset for a nation, the aim of the Rangzen Rolling Tournament is to create a platform for all the Tibetan college students across India to interact and build a strong network of relationships,” Rinchen Namgyal, President of TSAM told Phayul.

The boys’ player of the tournament was awarded to Jampa Thupten of RTYC Banglore and the girls’ player of the tournament went to Pema Palmo of TSAM Chennai.

Apart from the basketball tournament, a debate was also held on the issue of the recent spate of self-immolations in Tibet. Tibetan students exchanged ideas on how far selfless acts of self-immolations serve in fighting for the cause of a free Tibet.

Tenzin Phuntsok, a master’s student in political science at the Madras Christian College was awarded the best speaker.