The Taiwan Friends of Tibet yesterday said it was dismayed by an exhibition of Tibetan religious and artifacts at the National Palace Museum in Taipei, calling it an exhibition of “stolen Tibetan art” and a tool for China’s political propaganda.
“The ‘Treasures from the Roof of the World’ exhibition that opened on July 1 is actually an exhibition of ‘Tibet’s stolen treasures,’” the organization said in a press statement.
“The exhibition, organized with the help of China’s Tibet Autonomous Region Administration of Cultural Heritage, not only tries to create an image that China is the legitimate ruler of Tibet, but also attempts to cover up the fact that China rules over Tibet with an iron fist,” the statement said.
PHOTO: CHANG CHIA-MING, TAIPEI TIMES
Many of the religious items on display in Taipei, the statement said, had been collected from the more than 6,000 Buddhist monasteries that were destroyed after the People’s Liberation Army invaded Tibet in 1959.
The majority of those monasteries were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976.
Former Taiwan-Tibet Exchange Foundation deputy secretary-general Own Su-jei (翁仕杰) reminded visitors to “be aware of the underhanded political intentions behind the exhibition, which has all the appearance of a purely artistic event.”
Items on exhibit include centuries-old Buddhist sculptures, traditional Tibetan silk paintings known as thangka and other religious items.
Regional Tibetan Youth Congress Taiwan chairman Tashi Tsering said that as a Tibetan, the exhibition made him furious.
“The religious art crafts on display are sacred items for Tibetans,” he said. “These items are all in the hands of Chinese and they are sending them to exhibitions in whichever country they want without asking Tibetans, as if these were their own national treasures.”
Li Jieh-mei (李介媚), another member of the organization, said: “How would Taiwanese feel if China organized a tour of Taiwan’s Atayal Aboriginal dance around the world, only to tell people that it’s a traditional Chinese folk dance?”
“Visitors may be under the impression that China is taking good care of Tibetan religious crafts, but in fact, the Chinese government is repressing Tibetans’ freedom of religion,” Li said.
In related news, the exhibition organizer had asked Dawa Tsering, chairman of the Tibet Religious Foundation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama — the de facto representative of the Tibetan government-in-exile — to offer recommendations for the exhibition, but he turned the request down because Dawa said the wording in the official exhibition guide presented a Beijing-centric view of Tibetan history.
The Dalai Lama, who was forced into exile in India in 1959, will be celebrating his 75th birthday tomorrow.
The coast guard drove away 567 Chinese boats and seized seven illegally operating in Taiwanese waters in the first six months of this year, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. They mostly operated near Kinmen and Penghu counties, resulting in fines totaling NT$1.7 million (US$52,440), it said. Three ships — two near Kinmen County and one near Penghu County — were detained in January for illegally crossing the border, while one ship each was detained near Kinmen in February and Penghu in March respectively, it said. The ship seized near Penghu in January was the Yun Ao (雲澳), detained by the CGA’s
The entire Alishan Forest Railway line is to reopen for the first time in 15 years on Saturday, with tickets to go on sale at 2pm today. The historic railway from Chiayi to Alishan (阿里山) is finally set to reopen after the completion of the final No. 42 tunnel, Alishan Forest Railway and Cultural Heritage Office Deputy Director-General Chou Heng-kai (周恆凱) said. It is to run on a new timetable, with four trains daily, he said. The 9am train is to depart from Chiayi Railway Station bound for Shizilu Station (十字路), while the 10am train departing from Chiayi is to go all the
FLU CONTINUES: Hospitals reported 101,091 visits for flu-like illnesses last week, while 68 severe cases and 16 flu-related deaths were also reported, the CDC said The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported 932 hospitalizations due to COVID-19 and 64 related deaths for last week, adding that the number of people who had contracted new SARS-CoV-2 subvariants KP.2 and LB.1 has increased. The number of people hospitalized due to COVID-19 increased from 815 in the previous week to 932 last week, while 90 percent of the 64 deceased were aged 65 or older, CDC physician Lin Yung-ching (林詠青) said. JN.1 was still the dominant variant among local and imported cases in the past four weeks, while KP.2 was the second-most common, Lin said. Cases with the LB.1 subvariant
Beijing’s recent provocative actions against the Philippines in the South China Sea were partly meant as a “dress rehearsal” for the invasion of Taiwan, former US deputy national security advisor Matt Pottinger said at a Heritage Foundation forum in Washington on Tuesday. Beijing’s blocking of a Philippine resupply mission on June 17 with unprecedented violence had multiple implications. “What they’re doing is trying to demonstrate that they can blockade, create a sense of futility and discredit the idea that the United States is going to help not only the Philippines, but by extension Taiwan,” Pottinger said. Pottinger was referring to a clash