Seoul, May 19 (IANS) A four-foot bronze bust of India's Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore was unveiled here Wednesday by Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar and her South Korean counterpart Park Hee Tae.
Kumar conveyed India's appreciation to South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and his government for their friendly gesture of offering to install the bronze sculptural monument in Seoul as a mark of respect to Tagore's memory during his 150th birth anniversary celebrations.
The metal masterpiece, carved by renowned sculptor Gautam Pal, has been gifted to South Korea by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR).
Even years before South Korea was to throw off the yoke of foreign occupation, Tagore had prophesied in his poem "The Lamp of the East" in 1929 that it would not be long before Korea rises again like a star among the comity of nations.
"In the golden age of Asia
Korea was one of its lamp bearers
And that lamp is waiting
To be lighted once again
For the illumination of the East," Tagore wrote in the poem.
Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman K. Rahman Khan, South Korea's Vice Minister of Culture Mo Chul Min and Indian Ambassador Skand R. Tayal were also present.
Tagore Society in Korea president Kim Yang Shik paid a literary tribute to the Nobel laureate.