Tenzin Nyidon
DHARAMSHALA, Dec. 4: Tibetan activists and supporters in France held their 11th protest outside the Musée Guimet on Sunday, intensifying their call for the museum to end what they describe as the systematic erasure of Tibetan identity. They denounced the renaming of the Tibetan exhibition to “Himalayan World” as a deliberate act of negating Tibet’s existence and cultural distinctiveness.
The protest, organised by Students for a Free Tibet France (SFT France), was bolstered by the presence of Pema Doma, Executive Director of Students for a Free Tibet (SFT), who traveled from New York to stand in solidarity with the activists and the Tibetan community in Paris.
Addressing the crowd, Pema Doma highlighted the enduring struggle for Tibetan’s survival and identity. “I was born in the United States to a daughter of refugees. When my mother was born, her father was a prisoner. He spent years in prison because he was fighting for the Tibetan people. Decades later, I find myself here in Paris, fighting the same battle for the protection of our Tibetan cause and our community,” she said.
Pema also praised the resilience of the Tibetan diaspora and underscored Paris’s significance as home to one of the largest Tibetan exile communities outside Asia. She expressed profound disappointment in Musée Guimet’s director, Yannick Lintz, for renaming the museum’s Tibetan exhibition to “Himalayan World.” According to Pema, the change undermines Tibet’s distinct cultural identity and panders to external pressures, likely from the Chinese government.
Pema firmly rejected attempts to dilute Tibet’s historical and cultural significance. “Tibet has existed for thousands of years—over 10,000 years,” she asserted. “The decision by Yannick Lintz to change the exhibition from Tibet to “Himalayan World” at Musée Guimet just to satisfy those who may be pressuring her shows that she is not fulfilling the duties of her responsibility to this museum, the Tibetan community in Paris, the French people, and millions of Tibetan people around the world.”
She drew attention to the harsh realities facing Tibet today, emphasising the Chinese government’s attempts to erase Tibetan identity through measures such as colonial boarding schools, where over one million Tibetan children are currently being raised under Chinese state control. “The Chinese government would not like Tibet, Tibetan people, language, religion, history, and culture to exist. The French should not be complicit in that mission.”
Concluding her address, Pema called upon museum visitors to recognise and honour Tibet’s existence.“Tibet should not be silenced and Tibet exists. No amount of propaganda will ever change the fact,” she declared.
On their social media platform, SFT France reaffirmed their unwavering stance, demanding the immediate restoration of the name. “Tibet is not a geographical concept. It is a people, a nation, a memory, a civilisation. Each object in this collection carries the history of a people being silenced. We will not be silent. Tibet will remain Tibet,” the statement read.
The protest campaign has gained additional significance following its victory at Paris’s Musée du quai Branly, which reversed its use of the term “Xizang” to “Tibet” for its Tibetan artefacts after public protest.
