Ji Xianlin, the “guru of all Indologists in China,” according to the Times of India, was awarded one of India’s highest honors, the Padma Bhushan.
The decision to honour widely-respected Indologist Ji Xianlin, coming within 10 days of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to China, is seen in Beijing as a strong and reliable hand of friendship.
“This is a big initiative on the part of Prime Minister Singh to develop the friendship between the two nations. It will make a lot of difference in the way a lot of Chinese view India,” Jiang Kui, vice director of the Centre for Indian Studies at Beijing University told TOI in chaste Hindi.
The 97-year-old was recognized for work such as translating Indian texts like the Ramayana into Chinese. A biography is available here.
[Image via China.org]
