DHARMSHALA FIRST LITERATURE FESTIVAL.

Why in news?

• The first Dharamsala Literature Festival being hosted by the Kangra district administration began.
• The Dalai Lama’s message carrying his blessings was read out by his spokesperson during the inaugural session of the festival.
• Tenzin Tsundue and Nyen Tsering Tashi along with Tenzin Cheoying engaged in a conversion over the evolution of Tibetan literature. The session touched the Tibetan literature, as it evolved in exile and how it highlighted the plight of Tibetans.
• Deputy Commissioner of kangra said that the Dharamsala Literature Festival would be made a regular affair.

About Dharmshala

• Dharamshala is the winter capital of Himachal Pradesh, India.
• It serves as administrative headquarters of the Kangra district after being relocated from Kangra, a city located 18 kilometres away from Dharamshala, in 1855.
• The city has been selected as one of a hundred in India to be developed as a smart city under Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s flagship “Smart Cities Mission”.
• On 19 January 2017, the Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh, Virbhadra Singh, declared Dharamshala as the second capital of Himachal Pradesh, making it the third national administrative division of India to have two capitals after the state of Maharashtra and the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir.