China will fund an Indian gallery at the Rabindra Bharati University campus here to highlight
Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore's relations with that country, Chinese Consul-General Mao Sewei has said.
The gallery, to be named 'Rabindranath and China, will cost Rs 53.6 lakh to be provided by the Chinese government, said Mao, who signed an agreement on the project with RBU vice-chancellor Karuna Sindhu Das here on Friday.
Covering 180 sq mts, the gallery will have motifs on themes like Chinese Civilization, Lord Buddha: the Great Liaison between India and China, Tagore's inquisitiveness and respect for China, his visit to China in 1924, Visva Bharati,
Santiniketan and Studies of Chinese Literature and Culture.
Mao said the Gallery will be inaugurated on Tagore's 150 birth anniversary in May next year.
Stating that Tagore was very popular in China and his complete works were published in 24 volumes in Chinese last year, Mao said, "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."
In May this year, Indian President Pratibha Patil had unveiled a bust of Tagore on a busy road in Shanghai to mark his visit to the city 86 years ago.