In Marble and Memory: China Honors Rabindranath Tagore at Indian Embassy in Beijing
Indian Embassy unveils Yuan Xikun’s masterpiece.
A magnificent bust of Rabindranath Tagore, meticulously carved by China’s celebrated sculptor Yuan Xikun, was officially unveiled at the Indian Embassy in Beijing on Saturday. The ceremony took place on the sidelines of the ‘Sangamam: A Confluence of Indian Philosophical Traditions’ symposium, an event organized to deepen cultural and intellectual ties between India and China. Indian Ambassador Pradeep Rawat led the unveiling, describing Tagore’s 1924 visit as a pivotal milestone in the centuries-old civilizational dialogue between the two nations.
The Nobel laureate’s three landmark journeys to China – in 1924, 1927, and 1929 – left an indelible imprint on Chinese intellectual life. During his visits, Tagore engaged deeply with literary giants such as Xu Zhimo, Liang Qichao, and Lin Huiyin, inspiring a national movement to translate his works into Chinese. Today, over 200 dedicated scholars across China study Bengali and English solely to interpret Gitanjali, Kabuliwala, and The Post Office. Peking University hosts a Tagore Research Institute, while Shanghai and Hangzhou maintain Tagore Memorial Libraries with rare first editions.
Yuan Xikun, renowned curator of the Jin Tai Art Museum in Chaoyang Park, is no stranger to Indo-Chinese artistic synergy. In 2005, he gifted Beijing a unique seated statue of Mahatma Gandhi, depicted reading a book in a meditative posture – now a focal point for Gandhi Jayanti celebrations attended by thousands annually. The new Tagore bust, sculpted from premium Shandong white marble, stands three feet tall on a lotus-shaped pedestal engraved with lines from Gitanjali in Devanagari, Bengali, and Mandarin.
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In a 2009 nationwide poll commemorating the 60th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China, Rabindranath Tagore was voted among the top 50 foreigners who most influenced modern Chinese thought and development, alongside Jawaharlal Nehru, Albert Einstein, and Karl Marx. The Indian Embassy has announced plans for a grand Tagore Centenary Festival in 2026, featuring Rabindra Sangeet performances, Bengali poetry symposia, calligraphy exhibitions, and the launch of a digital archive containing 1,200 original letters exchanged between Tagore and his Chinese admirers.
As sunlight glints off the marble bust beneath Beijing’s crisp autumn sky, it serves not merely as art, but as a living symbol of universal humanism, shared heritage, and the enduring friendship between India and China – a friendship Tagore himself called “the meeting of two ancient souls.”
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