The Guimet museum erases the word Tibet – Liberation

« Himalayan world », « Tubo » … The Guimet museum does what it can to avoid using a word that seems strangely become taboo: « Tibet ». Tibet, its empire, its millennial culture, its unique identity, obviously distinct from the Chinese world, and yet its erased identity of the museum. The « Nepal-Tibet » room, renamed « Himalayan world » without any historical or cultural coherence is coupled with an inaccurate representation of Tibet in a temporary exhibition devoted to the Tang dynasty.

In this exhibition, the museum has chosen to use the Chinese name « Tubo » to designate Tibet, an appellation used only in Chinese literature. An appellation which erases the importance of the Tibetan empire which then competed with the Tang Empire. This choice is ignoring the historical and cultural importance of Tibet, an independent nation with certain times and which, sometimes, has experienced a form of protectorate, but which has always maintained a distinct identity. An identity constantly attacked and threatened by the assimilationist policies of Beijing, which went so far as to set up a residential system: more than 1 million Tibetan children are cut off from their mother tongue, their culture, their families. A blatant violation of human rights, denounced by all international organizations, but also by independent United Nations experts.

It is in this context of forced cultural erasure of a people, that the