MacBain to launch fund for Tibetan culture preservation

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-07-24 11:11

NEW YORK -- World-renowned publisher Louise T. Blouin MacBain has said here recently that she is going to launch an international fund for the protection and preservation of Tibetan culture.

While meeting with a delegation of Chinese Tibetologists visiting the United States recently, MacBain, who has been criticizing the Dalai Lama for his remarks about the so-called "cultural genocide" in Tibet, said that the new commitment of the 70 million U.S. dollars made by the Chinese government for preserving Tibetan culture in the next five years "has encouraged us to organize and start a new international fund."

"And this new international fund will be funded by many countries, and action will be taken from our foundation to try to encourage the good steps of what China has been doing for many years, and will continue to be doing for many years in Tibet," said MacBain, who is also chairwoman of the Louise T. Blouin Foundation.

Noting the new fund will encourage dialogue between Tibet and the rest of the world, she said that she will try to "encourage dialogue, communications and understanding that there is a (cultural) preservation that is happening in Tibet and sharing between Tibet and the rest of the world."

"We believe that through culture we can reach out to foreign affairs and foreign policies, and the more the heads of state are aware of the positive cultural actions, the more they are positive towards Tibet and China," she added.

MacBain is also the founder of the New Globalization Platform, part of the Global Creative Leadership Initiative that has gained an increasing influence. She has been working to promote exchanges between different cultures.

While meeting the delegation, headed by Tobdrub Wangben, vice minister of the State Commission for Ethnic Affairs of China, MacBain said that she would like to set up a special session at the coming "Global Creative Leadership Summit" scheduled on Sept. 21-23.

She said that she has invited Chinese leaders and experts to brief the world on the situation in Tibet so that "the heads of state attending the meeting will gain more knowledge of Tibet."

Noting that "culture is the window to understand values, beliefs and tradition so that we can respect our differences," MacBain said that she would also organize exhibitions of Tibetan cultures in "major world capitals like London, New York and Washington."

She is also considering of organizing a grand exhibition of Tibetan culture in the United Nations in cooperation with a partner from China or simply with the U.N. after permission is obtained from the Chinese side.

"We have to bring more knowledge about Tibet to the west, and I think culture is one of the ways for that purpose," said MacBain, one of the first foreign visitors to Lhasa after the March 14th riot.