Giant Mao statue erected in Tibet

BBC News World Edition ^ | Monday, 17 April 2006 | BBC

[LeoWindhorse]

The Chinese authorities say they are putting up a huge statue of Chairman Mao Zedong in Tibet.

The 35-ton memorial is being built to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the former leader's death.

It is being erected in Gonggar County, near the Tibetan capital Lhasa, China's state-run news agency Xinhua said.

The statue will rise 7m from a 5m pedestal strengthened to withstand earthquakes. Mao Zedong ordered the Chinese takeover of Tibet in 1950.

The statue will be the central landmark of Gonggar County's Shangcha square, which covers about 40,000 sq metres, and is scheduled for completion in July.

[LeoWindhorse]

The PRC hits a homerun in evil commie hypocracy with this one! So this is what the railroad was really being built for? Mao tse-Dung , the monster who unleashed the Cultural Revolution's murdering hords of the Red Guards on the defenceless people of Tibet , who established genocidal prisons like Drapchi and who was almost singlehandedly responsible for the near destruction of Tibetan Buddhism in its own land with the razing of countless monasteries and the murder of probably well over a million Tibetans ....Now the loving PRC gov sees fit to put up a vast statue to this killer tyrant , on the very land that ran red with the blood of its people under his rule? PRC truly knows no shame .

[2banana]

I say the Tibetans do a Taliban on that statue...

[rhombus]

"If you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao, you aren't gonna make it with anyone anyhow" --Lennon/McCartney

[COEXERJ145]

Mao is the worst mass murderer in history. He is well ahead of Stalin and Hitler combined.

That said, he is definitely an interesting historical character to study.

[kms61]

mull this one over, Wal Mart defenders.

[LeoWindhorse]

I agree , but then the PLA would go out and wipe out a few villages full of Tibetans in retaliation .
That's there style .
Or maybe they would just round them up and put them in camps where their body organs would be harvested from the live sources , which is PRC style too. People should think about these things whenever they buy Made in China goods.

[Donald Meaker]

I suppose they could do a "mount rushmore" thing, and add Hitler, Stalin, and Marx.

Then, when democracy wins, we could use the statues as raw material for somethink appropriate.

I kind of like Groucho, Chico, Harpo, Zeppo, and Gummo. better. Now there would be a statue.

[MeanWestTexan]

I had my own tribute to Mao this morning, right after coffee.

Have one almost every morning after coffee, in fact.

Sometimes I dedicate it to Mohammed, though.

[dead]

Hello Dalai, how's that pacifism working out?

[Mike Darancette]

The PRC hits a homerun in evil commie hypocracy with this one!

I'm sure the Tibetans consider Mao a liberator and hero of their country.

[siunevada]

7m from a 5m pedestal

Should be about the size of Saddam's old statue in downtown Baghdad.

[RonDog]

From blog.studentsforafreetibet.org:

The Bigger They Come, The Harder They Fall

Posted by Philo

Via Phayul, a Reuters article on China oh-so benevolently giving the people of Tibet a 40+ foot tall statue of Mao.

Late Chinese Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong is set to cast a huge shadow over Tibet once again with a giant stone statue of the Great Helmsman on its way to the Himalayan region, a newspaper said on Wednesday.

China’s biggest statue of Mao — rising 7.1 metres from a 5.16-metre pedestal — is due to arrive by truck in Gongga county under police escort in just over a week, the Beijing News said.

Changsha, capital of the southern province of Hunan, Mao’s birthplace, donated the statue to Gongga as part of aid for Tibet, the newspaper said. The statue will be a landmark in the county’s Changsha Square, which will be completed in July.

The Reuters article goes on to gloss over the murderous effects of Mao’s Cultural Revolution, particularly in Tibet, so I won’t give it light of day here.

Leaving aside the ridiculous idea of planting a forty-foot tall statue of Mao inside a nation that he violently invaded and occupied, how in the name of all that is sacred and holy does forty feet of solid stone Mao constitute “aid for Tibet?” What part of this undoubtedly expensive icon to a dictator will help the Tibetan people? Will the massive shadow it both physically and metaphorically casts provide shelter for homeless Tibetan children in Lhasa? Will Mao’s four pocket jacket contain bountiful medical supplies to treat tuberculosis and cataracts? Will the introduction of this stone idol bring new jobs to Tibetans or provide an institution to preserve Tibetan culture from the homogenizing forces of the Chinese Communist Party?

No, I don’t believe forty feet of Mao will accomplish any of these things. At most Mao’s statue will provide a vivid image for CNN and the BBC when it is toppled to its demise in a free Tibet.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 29th, 2006 at 11:05 am

[Verginius Rufus]

It should be made of mouse dung (the proper way to pronounce the great leader's name).

[jrg]

Ahhh, but because of the Chinese attempted suppression and destruction of Tibetan Buddhism, they have driven it out into the world. We now have the opportunity to see highly realized lamas that, had we been born normal Tibetans, would never have had access to.

[Gordongekko909]

"The 35-ton memorial is being built to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the former leader's death."

I'm celebrating the death of Mao too, by putting pictures of him in bar urinals. But I think that's a little different than what the ChiComs are doing.

[Gordongekko909]

It takes a special kind of jerk to oppress Buddhists. They never mess with anyone.

[Blue State Insurgent]

Where's the Tibetan weightlifter with the sledge hammer when you need him?

[jeremiah]

When we fully open our borders to trade, will the Chinese build a prison on Mexican soil, so they can take advantage of lower costs This will bring the product closer to the market for their organs. You know, less spoilage, shorter shipping lines.

[Fitzcarraldo]

Springtime for Mao

[kms61]

and some FReepers will explain to us how it's just the Free Enterprise systme at work.