Dharamsala — Sikyong Dr. Lobsang Sangay, the democratically elected political leader of the Tibetan people, Thursday inaugurated the new re-designed building of Tibet Museum, located at the Main Tibetan Temple in Mcleod Ganj.
The museum is redesigned with new modern technologies including touch screen panels, enlarged photos with higher resolutions, and a completely new section dedicated solely to the wave of self-immolations inside Tibet and the issue of human rights.
Speaking at the inauguration, Sikyong Dr. Lobsang Sangay lauded Tibet Museum's tireless efforts towards the preservation of Tibetan history and culture in the form of pictures.
"The Tibet Museum is one of the most visible platforms where we exhibit the photographs, artifacts and videos of Chinese occupation and oppression in Tibet. Over the years, the Tibet Museum has also undertaken various traveling exhibitions, which have helped create more awareness on the Tibet issue," Sikyong said.
Mr. Tashi Phuntsok, Director of Tibet Museum, said that, "the duty of the museum is to represent the situation inside Tibet and distribute and represent the information to foreigners and tourists. We are reopening the museum today on the 15th anniversary of it's original foundation... Today we add new information and video about the situation inside Tibet today. At the same time, we have recreated the museum to be more modern.
"We have also made entry to the Tibet Museum free of cost to attract more visitors, as per the direction from Kashag last year. On an average, over 50,000 tourists and Tibet supporters visit the museum annually. The traffic is slated to increase even more after this re-design," Tashi Phuntsok added, enthusiastically.
The Tibet Museum, an undertaking of the Department of Information and International Relations, was established in 1998, to serve as a remembrance of the loss of Tibetan culture and lives and present the hopes and aspirations of the Tibetan people through collected photographs and life histories. The museum is comprised of a permanent exhibition, traveling exhibition and an online exhibition on the history of Tibet, the Tibetan community in exile and various Tibet related issues.
Coinciding with the inauguration of the Tibet Museum, Sikyong Dr. Lobsang Sangay also launched the revamped version of the official website of the Central Tibetan Administration, Tibet.net.
In his brief address to mark the launch of the new revamped version, Sikyong underlined the importance of the website in reaching out to the Tibetan public, Tibet supporters and the international community on the policies of the Tibetan leadership as well as on the wider issue of Tibet.
In terms of visitors, the website receives an average monthly hit of 1,100,000 with over 60,000 unique visitors as of April 2015. It is visited by readers from 145 countries with India, US, UK, Canada and Switzerland in the top five.
