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Address by H.E. Ambassador Mr. Yang Houlan in the Seminar "Contribution of Bhrikuti towards Nepal-China Relationship"
2012-07-17 01:10

(July 16th, 2012)

Your Excellency Mr. Bairagi Kainla Chancellor of Nepal Academy,

Ms. Purna Shova Chitrakar, Chairperson of Nepal China Women Friendship Society,

Ladies and gentlemen, dear friends,

Good afternoon!

I’m very glad to participate in this seminar “Contribution of Bhrikuti towards Nepal-China Relationship” jointly organized by Nepal Academy and Nepal-China Women Friendship Society.

China and Nepal have always been friendly neighbors since ancient times, and the exchanges between the two peoples, especially the women, can be traced back to ancient times. As early as the Tang Dynasty, the Nepalese royal family married Princess Bhrikuti to the Tibetan local leader Songtsen Gampo. She and Princess Wencheng of Tang Dynasty were not only Songtsen's two wives, but also two worthy helpers to him. The two princesses worked together and presided over the construction of Jokhang Temple and Ramoche Temple in Tibet and the Buddha's 8-year-old and 12-year-old life-sized statues brought by them respectively are still worshiped today by tens of thousands of Buddhists around the world in the above mentioned two temples every year. The two princesses, according to their great achievements in bringing Buddhism to Tibet, were apotheosized as the Green Tara and White Tara respectively.

After the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, the Chinese women actively developed friendly exchanges with women in all countries, including Nepal, women's organizations and international women's organizations in the severe and complicated international environment. Since the reform and opening up, Chinese women are more confident in the development of friendly relations with the foreign women and women's organizations with their vast global views and broad international minds. The friendly exchanges and visits between the women and the women's organizations of China and Nepal have also become closer and more frequent. In April of this year, Ms. Chen Zhili, vice chairperson of the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress and president of the All-China Women's Federation, paid a friendly visit to Nepal together with Chinese women's delegation, which is the highest-level women’s delegation sent by the Chinese government after the founding of the PRC. During the visit, the delegation met with President Yadav, Prime Minister Bhattarai, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Shrestha and other Nepalese government officials, and had extensive and in-depth exchanges of views with women Constituent Assembly members and women representatives of all aspects, which further deepened the understanding between the women of two countries.

China is the largest and most populous developing country in the world. It has a population of 1.34 billion, and the women, nearly 653 million, accounts for 48.7% of the total population. China attaches great importance to the development and progress of women, takes gender equality as a basic national policy, and emphasizes that the coordinative development of both genders is an important part of building harmonious society. The Chinese Government takes gender equality, common development and mutual benefit as the basic principles in developing national policies, and makes great efforts to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women by using legal, administrative, educational and other forms of means. As China's overall economic development and social progress, equal rights and opportunities between women and men have been continuously protected, the development of women has faced unprecedented opportunities, and the status of women has been increasingly improved.

In the future, China will continue to actively participate in global and regional women's affairs, to encourage women and women's organizations in China to promote depth and width of foreign exchanges with their counterparts, and to make new and greater contributions in promoting the development of women's cause together with peoples around the world.

Thank you!

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