No Longer Everest-Westerners Urged to Recognize Original Name of World's Highest Peak

Xinhuanet News Service ^ | Staff Writers

[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.

[catpuppy]

...on whose side would I be?

Why the Chinese, of course. Granted the opportunities for selling secrets to the Chinese or others won't be as great as in the most recent Democratic Administration, most of the better secrets already having been given up by that bunch. Still, one can never underestimate the ability of Dems to turn a fast profit on government property, especially that which is classified and/or strategically important.

[Tailgunner Joe]

bttt