President Patil unveils Tagore's statue in Shanghai

Shanghai, May 30 (ANI): President Pratibha Patil unveiled the statue of legendary poet Rabindranath Tagore here on Sunday by honouring the Nobel laureate's impression on Chinese poets and writers.

The statue is located at busy junction of the Mao Ming Road and Nanchang Road in China's business hub, acknowledging Tagore's impression on Chinese poets and scholars.

China has already shown interest in constructing a gallery at Rabindra Bharathi University in Kolkata to commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of Tagore.

Patil paid floral tributes to Tagore's sculpture during the special ceremony attended by Chinese officials and dignitaries.

Gautam Pal has sculpted the 125 kilograms structure.

The Beijing Lecture Association invited Tagore in 1923 to deliver a series of talks as part of its objective to enable foreign scholars to come and interact with Chinese intellectuals.

The Nobel laureate visited China thrice in the 1920s. To bring out the original concept of Tagore's works, several Chinese scholars learned Bengali to translate his poems. By Praful Kumar Singh (ANI)