TiBE 2011 Guest of Honor: Bhutan

The 2011 Taipei International Book Exhibition (TiBE) wrapped up with more than 450 writers worldwide, 800 publishers from 58 countries, and 590,000 visitors attending the event.

And this year TiBE highlight the Himalayan kingdom Bhutan as the Guest of Honor country, promoting the theme of “happiness.”

The Bhutan pavilion presented more than 300 books, including three handwritten manuscripts – a biography of the second Buddha Guru Rinpoche, the Buddhist classic “The Eight Thousand Verses of Transcendental Wisdom” from the 12th century, and a letter written by Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyel, the unifier of Bhutan; This was the first time these historical manuscripts were presented abroad.

During the TiBE 2011, more than 40 public reading sessions were held. It was the first time in its 19-year history that TiBE has staged such an event. “Public reading became a tradition following Germany’s Leipzig and Japan’s Fukuoka book fairs. In the future, the foundation could make a reading festival of Chinese-language literature part of its annual routine” the TBFF Chairman Wang Jung-Wen said.

Other highlights included the Comics Festival, drawing over 300,000 anime fans, and the Digital Publishing Pavilion, which showcased the latest reading technologies.