TOPAKETA (the Encounter), is a sculpture of Regis Pochelu located in the Basque village of Espelette for the 150th anniversary of the Giant Panda discovery by Armand David. Born in Espelette in the North of Basque Country, in Pyrénées-Atlantiques département of France, Armand David entered the Congregation of the Mission in 1848 having already displayed great fondness for the natural sciences. Ordained in 1862, he was shortly afterwards send to Beijing where he began a collection of material for the Museum of Natural History in Paris. The most remarkable of the animals found by David was the Giant Panda in 1869.