Taiwan's Museum of World Religions donated HK$1 million (NT$4,426,000 or US$128,200) yesterday to kickstart a campaign to help rebuild two giant Buddhist statues destroyed last year by Taliban extremists in Afghanistan.
"We want to rebuild them and urge other religious groups to join us [to pay for it]," said Venerable Dharma Master Hsin Tao (心道法師), the founder of the Museum of World Religions.
Speaking to reporters in Hong Kong, where he is currently visiting to publicize his campaign, the monk also urged religious groups the world over to help protect holy artefacts.
"If all religious groups can come together, everyone will be able to come to a common understanding to protect all religious relics in the future," said the monk.
The Taliban destroyed many artworks in Afghanistan, including the world-famous Buddha statues in Bamiyan, as they saw them as abominations to their fiercely fundamentalist version of Islam.
Afghanistan's interim leader Hamid Karzai said earlier this year the country hoped to rebuild the statues.
"Experts say the reconstruction will cost US$25 million and take four years. We want to start this so that more people will be aware of this issue and its importance," said Master Hsin Tao.
He will head for Kabul at the end of the month where he will participate in a conference organized by UNESCO on how best to reconstruct the two statues.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
EVERYONE’S ISSUE: Kim said that during a visit to Taiwan, she asked what would happen if China attacked, and was told that the global economy would shut down Taiwan is critical to the global economy, and its defense is a “here and now” issue, US Representative Young Kim said during a roundtable talk on Taiwan-US relations on Friday. Kim, who serves on the US House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee, held a roundtable talk titled “Global Ties, Local Impact: Why Taiwan Matters for California,” at Santiago Canyon College in Orange County, California. “Despite its small size and long distance from us, Taiwan’s cultural and economic importance is felt across our communities,” Kim said during her opening remarks. Stanford University researcher and lecturer Lanhee Chen (陳仁宜), lawyer Lin Ching-chi
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