Paris museum accused of 'erasing' Tibet under pressure from China
Tibetans in France have been sounding the alarm over the Guimet Museum of Asian Arts' relabelling of its art and artefacts from Tibet, saying it has caved to pressure from China to "erase" Tibetan culture.
Each week since September, a group of Tibetans in Paris have been gathering across the street from the city's Guimet Museum of Asian Arts to protest against its decision to change the name of its Tibet Nepal collection to the more general – and they say, inaccurate – term, "Himalayan World".
On a day in mid-December, Yangchen, president of Students for a Free Tibet (SFT) France, which has been organising the weekly demonstrations, picked up a megaphone and turned to face the museum building, starting a call-and-response chant with the protesters around her.
“Shame on...” she shouted. “Guimet!” the other demonstrators, many wrapped in Tibetan flags, answered.
“Tibetan art...” she yelled. "Deserves its real name!” they called back. “Tibetan culture is not negotiable.”
More on this story in the Spotlight on France podcast, episode 121, listen here:
Yangchen said there is more at stake than just a label in a museum.
“It's a very subtle erasure," she said of the name change, which she found shocking in France. “We are in a free country here in France, and Chinese pressure comes even here.”
'Erasing' Tibet
The demonstrators have vowed to continue their protests.
Read more on RFI English
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