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CHANGSHA, China, Mar 31, 2006 (UPI via COMTEX) -- A 24 1/2-foot statue of China's Mao Zedong is to arrive in Tibet, the peaceful Himalayan Buddhist territory occupied by the late Grat Helmsman's Red Army in 1951.
The 35-ton figure is a gift to the small Tibetan town of Gongga from Mao's birthplace of Changsha in the southern Hunan province, The Times of London reports.
A government official was quoted as saying: "Tibet does not need only material development. It must also meet the more spiritual needs of its people."
Tibet reportedly requested the gift. Its designer Zhu Weijing said: "I tried to understand how Tibetans feel towards Mao. Because they have deep feelings about Buddha, I tried to make Mao more like that, with a plumper face."
URL: www.upi.com Copyright 2006 by United Press International
