Posted on 11/19/2002 11:52:23 AM PST by ewing
Blindly believing themselves the first to discover the tallest mountain straddling the border of China's Tibet and Nepal, Britsh people named the peak in honor of George Everest, a British surveyor general of India who led a team in surveying the Himalayan ranges in the early 1840's.
In a paper published in 1958, Lin Chao, a late prestigious expert on geographic history and topography with Beijing University, noted that the British man did not deserve the honor, as it was Tibetans themselves who first discovered the peak.
According to Lin's reasearch, the Manchurian and Han (or Chinese) language name of 'Qomolangma' first appeared in different versions of the Atlas of the Whole Imperial Territory in 1719 and 1721 respectively during the reign of Emporer Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).
The survey and marking of Qomolangma on the map by Chinese people preceded the British colonists mapping by more thaan 130 years.
In the Tibetan language, Qomolangma represents the mother goddess of the earth.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.xinhuanet.com ...
You know... it really was.
I was driving my girlfriend across the country in her car and we just decided to go up on a whim.
I forgot to mention that there was also no power brakes with the engine stopped, so I had to stand up and really stomp on the brakes just to s-l-o-w-l-y get it to stop.
And this with me turned around in my seat hoping another car was not coming up the two lane road and with shear drops without guard rails.
Chivalrous guy that I am, I made my girlfriend get out of the car and walk beside until we got low enough to get the engine to fire again.
Whoa!....were my nerves ever SHOT!
I'm guessing you had her walking on the side farthest from the sheer drop. LOL!
I once rode my dirt bike up a fourteener in the Mosquito Range. It was a 550, 4 stroke and it just barely had the power to make it to the top. The air is rare up there.
That is all.
O2
Oh yes....
I figured smashing her between the car and the rock face was more humane that knocking her off the side of the mountain.
And just think...it's another 3000 ft. just to get to the base of Everest.
Just how did they get that Toyota to run that high up?
(specially designed diesel or something?)
Or a specially designed computer program.
What....and hurt the luggage?!
Smacking head with hand.. .
It is a little known fact that "Qomolangma" is the Chinese word for "Old Crusty."
In college I dated a girl from La Paz, Bolivia. The city is at an altitude of 13,000 feet. She said that the air was so thin there that you could hold the tip of a lit cigarette against your finger for several seconds and not burn yourself.
Wish I could have seen the pictures of the Toyota. I have seen some pretty amazing things done with winches. Maybe that's how they did it.
HA!!
An ancient Chinese dialect, huh?
That right?
Well FYI catpuppy, individual Chinese words are often complete sentences, y'know?
Somewhere in that [word] has just got to be a couple more words for it to be grammatically correct.
For that reason I'm compelled to believe, "black pantsuit" is in there, too.
...don'tcha think? {g}
Wow; sounds great.
Ahhhh just one question, though.
Given it's a future 'Rat administration this career opporunity's to take place??
...on whose side would I be?
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