Cycling for Manjushri 2022: Tibet at Volkskundemuseum Leiden

Today, ICT director invited Wangpo Tethong the Tibetan Tibetologist Yangdon Dhondup, living in Leiden, and myself for a visit to the Ethnographic Museum. The museum houses a small collection Tibetan religious artefacts.

Wangpo told us that His Holiness the Dalai Lama visited the museum in 1985 and opened the exhibition. He noted that it is sad that Tibetan cultural objects are highly regarded in Europe, while the Tibetan culture suppressed and marginalised in Chinese-occupied Tibet.

What we have remembered from today's visit is that culture should be lived, in freedom and in joy. Culture should not only be found in museums.

Thank you, Wangpo and Yangdon, for this very interesting tour.