CHEENA BHAVANA Visva-Bharati University

CHEENA BHAVANA,  Visva-Bharati University in 1984

中國學院, 印度國際大學
 CHEENA BHAVANA
 Visva-Bharati University

Tagore (1861-1941)

Tan Yun-shan 譚雲山 (1898-1983)

Visva-Bharati University was establisged in 1922.

CHEENA BHAVANA at Visva-Bharati was established under guidance of Tagore himself with the help from  Prof. Tan Yun-shan 譚雲山 in April 1937.

During the time of Tagore and Tan Yun-shan 譚雲山, scholars from Europe craved to study and research at Cheena-Bhavana, Visva-Bharati. 

Famous French sinologist, Sylvain Levi (1863-1935) joined Visva-Bharati as the first Visiting Professor who taught Chinese and Tibetan and present during the inauguration ceremony of Visva-Bharati. 

Xu Beihong徐悲鴻 (1895-1953) from China researched and taught at Visva-Bharati, Cheena-Bhavana.

Cheena-Bhavana was established with the lofty ideals of strengthening the age old cultural ties between India and China, promote Sino-Indian understanding, translate back Buddhist scriptures into Indian languages and become a pivotal research centre in Sino-Indian studies.

But recent decades it has shrunk as a ‘department of Chinese language’ and the whole department has not been able to produce a single research paper in a referred journal in the recent few years.

However, there is strong sign of changes recent years after the University signed MoU with a university in China. And a few more MoU with other Chinese Universities are on planning.

After brief war between China and India September-October 1962, Nehru came to Visva-Bharati for annual convocation on 24 December 1962. 

Nehru was very hurt after China war and was criticizing China in a vicious manner in his convocation address.

However, when Nehru saw Prof. Tan Yun-shan 譚雲山, crying bitterly under a tree in white-clad Ashram suit, he changed his speech. He proclaimed,

“In Visva-Bharati you have got various departments. You have got the Cheena-Bhavan under a distinguished Chinese scholar (Tan Yun-shan). That is a good thing to remind you always that you are not at war with China’s culture or the greatness of China in the past or present. (See Jawaharlal Nehru’s Speeches, vol. 4, p. 27.). ”

Prof. Tan Yun-shan 譚雲山 was close to Nehru, Gandhi and Tagore.

http://muktodhara.org/?p=3465

Tagore and Tan Yunshan

1984, I came to Shantinagathan and stayed for two nights in a hostel mentioned in Lonely Planet travel guide book. (I might came once earlier in 1983, but memories at this age of 62 is unclear now. I never wrote any diary while in India for 2.5 years)

I strolled around the campus and met an African student majoring Comparative Religions and a subject in Arts. He brought me around and to see his art classroom. There were sculptures. He show me his drawing of an Indian potrial.  This is a drawing practise in his class and the model for this drawing was a rickshaw man in real life. The school invite him sometimes to be their model in drawing lessons. The school chosen him because this rickshaw man has a unique.

This African friend I newly met also took me for a walk to the nearby rice farm.  The rice farms were very different from the padi (rice) farms back home in Malaysia. My maternal  grandmother in Sabah also has a big rice farm which I been to once.

This rice farm in Shantinagatan is vast and one felt like to run over the vast big field. See images belows.

We haste on without heed, forgetting the flowers on the roadside hedge.

We haste on without heed, forgetting the flowers on the roadside hedge.

---

— The Gardener, 1915 BY RABINDRANATH TAGORE India Who are you, reader, reading my poems an hundred years hence? I cannot send you one single flower from this wealth of the spring, one single streak of gold from yonder clouds.   Open your doors and look abroad. From your blossoming garden gather fragrant memories of the vanished flowers of an hundred years before.   In the joy of your heart may you feel the living joy that sang one spring morning, sending its glad voice across an hundred years.

Orange Color Flower

Melastoma - Singapore Rhododendron

Passiflora foetida

Purple Grass Flower

Little White Star Flower

Purple Grass Flower

Purple White Flower

Little white purple flower

Mimosa - The Sensitive Grass 

Eichhornia crassipes - The Water Hyacinth

Ipomoea aquatica - KangKung in Indonesian, Malay

Neptunia Plena - Aquatic sensitive plant

It was the young Japanese who made Rabindranat Tagore known to me.

In 1982, I stayed in the Tibetan Boarding House in Calcutta City.  I chose to stay here because this is the cheapest accommodation I could afford in the City.  This boarding house happens to be also the favorite accommodation of a constant flow of young Japanese coming to India in search spiritual enlightenment. They are not hippies. They are admirers and followers of Tagore.   These I met in the boarding house are those such as University fresh leaver who not yet have a job. (That is why they chose to stay in this cheap accommodation)

We were room mates, we talk to each other. Almost every one told me they came for Rabindaranat Tagore.  At that time I knew nothing about Tagore.

“You do not know Rabindranat Tagore?” One young Japanese asked me surprisingly.

“I do not know who he is.” I told him truly.

He gave an introduction of Tagor to me. And told me that Tagore has a school at Shantiniketan Town, Bolpur, today a leading university, Viswabharati.  In that school, student study in the open air under the trees.

Study under the trees! That is romantic. I like to pay a visit to the school.

That was only the second days I  arrived to India.  So I stared my understanding of India through Rabindranat Tagore.  And  it was the young Japanese who make Rabindranat Tagore know to me.

A week later I made my first train trip in India from Calcutta to Shantiniketan where Tagore’s University is.

Rabindranath Tagore, the poet laureate from Bengal, was the first Asian to win the Nobel Prize in 1913 for Song Offerings, an English translation of Gitanjali. 

Rabindranath Tagore was not only the first Indian, but also the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913. 

Tagore’s original English writings are mostly essays, poetry being his translations of his original Bengali poems. 

Two interesting English works of Tagore, Stray Birds

and Fireflies contain poems, both original in Bengali Language and English translations. 

Besides Gitanjali (Song Offerings) which earned him the Nobel prize, among his other poetical works in English, all translations. Here is a list of his works: 

1- Gitanjali (Song Offerings)

2- The Gardener, 

3- The Crescent Moon, 

4- Fruit Gathering, 

5- Lover’s Gift and Crossing,

6- The Fugitive

7- The Child

“The Child” is the only major poem of Tagore written originally in English and published as a separate book. Tagore was never ambitious to be famous as an English writer. Though he was born into an elite family and well-exposed to Western culture and literature, had visited England twice and had many Europeans as acquaintances and friends, his preference of language for his literary expression had always been his native language, Bengali.

1984 Pei Mei Graduation

印度自由僑校聯合畢業典禮

印度蘭齊傳真

31 October 1984 Indira Gandhi

31 October 1984 Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two of her Sikh bodyguards in the morning.

I was in Calcutta city the whole day and saw a different Calcutta city scene in my life.

12th Nov 1983 Pei Mei School Graduation

National Day Celebration 10th October 1983 in Calcutta

National Day Celebration 10th October 1983 (Double Ten Day)

印度華僑各界慶祝 中華民國七十二年雙十國慶

1983 Tibetan Refugees Self-Help Centre, India

The overnight train ride from Calcutta reached Siliguri early in the morning. From here I bought another train train ticket to the final distination - Darjeeling.

Summer 1983 Tibetan Refugees Self-Help Centre

Darjeeling

Following the direction in my Lonely Planet travel guide book, I came to this Centre on Northern hillside of Darjeeling. I found the regugee's kitchen and as suggested by this guide book, I tried the Tibetian soup dumpling for lunch. Though summer, it is cold in a hill station like Darjeeling, and this bowl of fresh from boiling hot soup with meat dumpling served well to give some warm to the body.

I met friendly and outgoing young Tibetans (Photo above). They lookforward to the outside world. The refugee centre after all is too small a world for them. As such they make effort in mastering English, a necessary skill to live outside the refugee center.

I came to Darjeeling by a Toy Train, a big toy train. Most visitors do not take the small train because of slow and time consuming. There are plenty of jeep and buses for batter choice. But I took up the suggestion in Lonely Planet to try this world unique Toy train. It was a memorable experience. I had an exciting riding experience most travelers never had......clinging to the window side of the train and ridded for half an hour. What made this happen is.......

It seemed to be a popular sport of the young people of the hill to Darjeeling. They made they own skating board of a meter length wood plank with two or three wheel on. While there is no vehicle in sight, they would link on the board with their hands and feet floating in the air, they slice down the deep slop down the road. Its is a height speed extreme sport.

This toy train ride took a whole day. By the time I reached Darjeeling the sky was dark.

Photo From Round the World Adventure in Darjeeling, India

on Jul 29 '07 by Michael & Erin

Most of my time in Darjeeling in 1983 were drizzling or misty. The spectacular mountain views of Darjeeling were obscured by mist. This is how Darjeeling looked like in above photo taken by Michael & Erin in 2007

中華民國駐軍蘭伽公墓剪彩典礼

Jharkhand District, Ranchi City, Ramgarh Town

张其勇忆述重修中国驻印军兰伽公墓往事

（星星生活特稿/作者：捷克佳）

"......经过八个多月的施工，工程于1982年完成，并在1983年2月14日举行隆重剪彩典礼。台湾侨务委员会庞守谦处长和印度兰伽军区司令R.S. Puri准将共同主持仪式。除当地的印度人之外，还有请来的和尚进行超度法式。印度华侨协会也自加尔各答市组团并租赁两部旅游巴士，专程前来兰伽镇参加当日的庆典。(newstarnet.com)"

I been to a unique town in India. It was in 1983. That is the Military Town of Ramgarh where, for the first , I saw a highly disciplined contingent of Indian Army and commanders.

In the above Chinese article that mentioned 2 tour buses, I was in one of the buses that went to Ramgarh in Ranchi on 14th February 1983.

Here are some memories of that trip:

The buses stopped briefly in front the restaurant of Chong Ki Yung, who would a month time receive recognition from Taiwan Government for his merit effort in restoring a forgotten Chinese army cemetery in Ramgarh. It is the opening of this newly restored cemetery I came, alone with 2 bus lot of Chinese residents of Calcutta City.

At the cemetery ground was an army brass band composed mostly Sikh army. They march and played several tunes during the ceremony. It was a very hot day, while all the VIP and visitors seat under shelter of tents, the whole band of Sikh Army stay under strong sun the whole ceremony cession.

The newly Temple also declare open that day and I was amount the first batch of visitor to enter the temple. I was among the last in the line and as I turn my head I saw the main gate at the distant came a big noicy crowd of villages men and women and children approaching the temple. There were VIP inside the tinny and I thought if these crowd also enter same time they may jam the temple. As I was at the doors at that time so instingly I close the 2 wings of the big door trying to keep the noisy crowd outside, at least till all the VIP inside have left.... soon a member approach me and told me its OK to let them in....all of them. So I let all and every one of the group of villagers into the shrine....................

Chinese Army in India - The X Force

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_Force

Why 600 Chinese soldiers rest-in-peace in the soil of India?

There is a chapter in modern history which the Indian and Chinese forgotten. A capter the young generation of British and American do not know exist. This is also a page the Japanese want to tear off and destroy.

1942, China sent troops into Burma to assist the British in holding back the Japanese conqueror. Chinese loose to the highly self sacrificing Japanese. These Chinese forces became broken up, and retreat out of Burma. Part of these forces entered India’s Ramgarh under the British at that time. Calcutta, during the WW2, was a place of refugee providing refuge protecting many a Chinese scholars, politicians and business men.

This retreated Chinese army were re-equipped and re-trained by American instructors at British expense. They were named X Force and used by General Joseph Stilwell as the spearhead of his drive to open a land route to China (the Ledo Road).

Eventually they return to China with 600 of them choose to remain in India for ever.

Read full stories in : Chinese Army in India http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_Force

印度加爾各答梅光學校校長丘莉蘭自1983年起管理 加爾克漢德省蘭齊市的「中華民國駐印軍蘭伽公墓」。1995因中風不良於行，由學生陳學良接管。

抗日遠征軍公墓斑駁剝落 2010-04-05 22:43:07　中央社記者何宏儒印度蘭齊5日專電

印度加爾各答的華僑4日前往「中華民國駐印軍蘭伽公墓」春祭，因年久失修，墓園祠堂、佛堂樑柱有裂痕，部分墳塚出現破洞、英烈靈位碑也斑駁剝落，亟待整修。

墓園位於加爾克漢德（Jharkhand）省首府蘭齊（Ranchi）近郊的蘭伽（Ramgarh）地區，原名「印度蘭伽中國抗日遠征軍烈士公墓」，為第2次世界大戰期間中華民國遠征軍埋骨之所。

加爾各答（Kolkata）華僑後來將湮滅在荒草荊棘中的國軍墳墓集中遷葬一處，修建成環境清幽的墓園，並僱請專人管理。

6位加爾各答華僑4日分別搭飛機、火車，前往墓園舉行春祭。加爾各答與蘭齊市相隔約320公里；華僑抵蘭齊後，需再花費約2小時車程，走山路抵達墓園。

1983年起受托管理墓園的加爾各答梅光學校校長丘莉蘭對中央社記者表示，加爾各答華僑每年固定在青年節到清明節期間及軍人節時，前往墓園舉行春、秋祭。

最近10年來，她因中風而較少參與，並在4年前將管理之責交棒給學生陳學良。

中央社記者走訪園區，發現一處圍牆遭緊鄰的大樹壓迫，已經崩裂；部分墳塚出現拳頭大小破洞、部分墓碑則有裂痕；蔣公題字「英靈赫奕」的英烈靈位碑也斑駁剝落。

另外，園區大門接待小屋屋頂鋼筋也已露出；陳學良憂心「屋頂不知道那一天會掉下來？」

丘莉蘭強調，維護管理墓園雖然是國家的事，但「我們有責任來幫忙國家保管這個地方」。

由於蘭齊市至蘭伽山區路途遙遠而辛苦，陳學良說，整修工程勢必需要花費數倍於平地或市區的費用。他希望台灣政府撥款協助，以儘早完成整修，告慰異鄉英靈。

Spring Trip, India 1983

Front row 2nd from left : 葉幹中- 僑領, 華僑協會主席, 培梅中學校長

1917年出生，廣東省梅縣人.

1963年11月和1988年7月、1993年8月先後被聘為國民黨第九屆、十三屆、十四屆中央評議委員。

1983 Spring Trip to Buddhist Holy Land

The Mahabodhi Temple was built in the 6th century AD beside the Bodhi Tree where Buddha attained enlightenment.

The main temple structure a huge 50-meter stone-carved pyramid with endless carvings at the 4 sides. The said beside this main temple is the actual Bhodi Tree.

The temple surrounding is a maze of paths, gardens, shrines, and a beautiful green meditation park.

旅印華僑所辦的第二所華僑學校

陈荣进 叶干中 梅光学校

印度葉幹中 葉幹中 張 杰 曾志堯 歐陽勝駒

The only Hakka Association in India

印度加城梅屬嘉應會館

The Meixian Jiaying Association

in Calcutta, India

The President: 葉幹中 (Ye Gan Zhong)

Overseas Chinese Association of India

19-20 New Meredith Street,

Calcutta 700072

India

Fax: 247-6405

僑務工作

加爾各答的《印度日報》(1933)

印度日報社長張啟華﹐

僑領譚銳燊和鄧崇銘﹑

佛教代表悟謙法師﹑李畹生和劉金昌居士，

連葉幹中

忠義堂

和譚銳燊﹑鄧崇銘

“塔壩中國城”隨筆 http://big5.fmprc.gov.cn/gate/big5/in.china-embassy.org/chn/ssygd/chunchaochao/t240227.htm

培梅学校是印度目前仅存的一所华人学校，坐落在华人集中的塔坝区。该校创办于1925年，由当地华人华侨捐资兴建。1951年，因老校舍过于破旧，当地华人又建了一座新的教学楼。