China donates Rs.53.6 lakh for Tagore gallery

KOLKATA - The Chinese Government has decided to donate Rs.53.6 lakh for the establishment of a gallery on nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore in the Tagore Museum of Rabindra Bharati University.

An agreement in this regard was inked Friday between the Chinese ministry of culture and the University at Tagore House, a release from the Chinese consulate general here said Saturday.

Mao Siwei, consul general of China in Kolkata, and Rabindra Bharati University Vice-chancellor Karuna Sindhu Das signed the pact for the gallery named “Rabindranath and China”.

The gallery would cover an area of 180 square metres and display motifs including Chinese civilization, Lord Buddha - the Great Liaison between India and China, Tagore’s inquisitiveness and respect for China from his childhood days, Visva Bharati and studies of Chinese literature and culture, as also the bard’s visit to China in 1924.

The gallery would be inaugurated May 2011.

“As far as I know, Chinese is the language which has done the most for Tagore’s publications, second only to Indian languages and English,” said Siwei.

Tagore (1861-1941) was the first Asian to win the nobel prize for literature in 1921. He was born in Tagore House, which is now under the Rabindra Bharati University. Tagore’s 150th birth anniversary falls on May 9 next year.

Tagore is among the most revered writers in the world who churned out poems, plays, songs, novels and short stories. The vastness, richness and diversity of his literary ouvre is almost unmatched in the world.