Posted on 11/19/2002 10:29:08 PM PST by TheConservator
China has launched an intensive campaign to make the west in particular stop calling the world’s highest peak as Mount Everest and instead refer to it by its Chinese name Mount Qomolangma. It says that the mountain is very sacred to the Tibetans.
The campaign was officially launched on Monday in all the newspapers. The Chinese Daily accused "British colonialists" of "ignorance and arrogance" in persisting with references to Mt Everest. "British colonialists raped the sacred mountain of the Tibetans by giving it a false name."
"Until today the world is still persistently humiliating Mt Qomolangma with English-language hegemonism,” says the article in the China Daily.
The name Everest was given to the mountain in 1865 in honour of Sir George Everest who was then surveyor-general of India. He mapped the peak in 1852. But China claims the peak was first mapped in 1717 by Qing dynasty officials. It justifies its occupation of Tibet on the basis of this claim, says a Daily Telegraph report.
The report also says that the name-changing claim is riddled with many incongruities. "Its targeted completion date (next year) is designed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the day that Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tensing finally scaled the 29,028 ft peak in 1953, an occasion which remains a high-point of post-war pride."
It is alleged that the ethnic Tibetan scholars at Beijing universities have protested about the use of Everest in the name of a nation that has "been subjugated by a colonial Chinese regime for nearly half-a-century".
But a spokesman for the China Tibetology Centre is quoted saying, "It is time for the Western world to respect us by recognising the highest peak on earth by its Tibetan name, Qomolangma.”
The Telegraph report however says that most Tibetans not associated with Chinese officials render their name for the mountain as Chomolungma, meaning Mother of the World.
The issue is further complicated with the Nepalese insisting in calling it Sagarmatha or the Goddess of the Sky. A scholar here wondered how will India react.
According to longheld Indian belief the peak is the snow bound abode of lord Shiva and thus very sacred to the Hindus. It has always been known as Kailash parvat. Shiva is also often called Kailashpati.
The Chinese claim is being described here as Beijing’s obsession with controlling the English-language spelling of Chinese characters. This dates back to the first days of the Chinese Republic.
Chomo-Lung-Ma. Everest. It makes little difference what you call a mountain, it can't hear you anyways.
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