Tenzin Nyidon
DHARAMSHALA, Jan. 9: The President of the exile Tibetan government known officially as the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), Penpa Tsering, called upon international media outlets to use the term “Tibet” rather than “Xizang” in their coverage of the recent earthquake that struck Dingri County in Shigatse Prefecture, Tibet. He made the statement during a public prayer ceremony held on Wednesday at the Tsuglhakhang temple to mourn the victims of the disaster.
The solemn ceremony, organised by the CTA, aimed to express solidarity with those affected by the devastating earthquake, which claimed more than 125 lives, left hundreds injured, and displaced thousands in Dingri. The ceremony was attended by CTA officials and local residents of Dharamshala to pay their respects and show support for the victims and their families.
Addressing the media, CTA President Penpa Tsering urged international outlets to use “Tibet” in their coverage instead of “Xizang.” Prominent international media organisations, including The Guardian, AFP, and ANI, have used “Xizang” in their reporting on the earthquake. He pointed out that using the Chinese term has significant geopolitical implications, subtly endorsing China’s claim over Tibet and diminishing the region’s distinctiveness. “We appeal to the international community not to fall into the trap of Chinese propaganda by using Chinese names for Tibetan places,” President Tsering stated.
Students for a Free Tibet (SFT), a global network of youth activists, also condemned the use of the term “Xizang” in international media, accusing China of exploiting the tragedy to further its authoritarian agenda. “By pushing their colonial term “Xizang” in place of Tibet, the CCP is attempting to rewrite history,” SFT stated. “By using “Xizang” in their reporting, media outlets are complicit in China’s colonisation of China and knows that as long as Tibetans exist, they will resist. Thus, the CCP’s central goal has become erasing Tibet from the media, museums, and the map.”
SFT further called on media outlets, governments, and international institutions to reject Chinese propaganda and accurately refer to Tibet and Tibetan place names. “It is the duty of all media outlets, governments, and international institutions to reject Chinese propaganda and accurately refer to Tibet and Tibetan place names,” the organisation asserted.
Meanwhile, local Tibetans in Dharamshala held a candlelight vigil organized by four major Tibetan non-governmental organisations—Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC), Students for a Free Tibet (SFT), Tibetan Women’s Association (TWA), and the National Democratic Party of Tibet (NDPT)—to express solidarity with the victims of the Dingri earthquake.
During the vigil, the NGOs condemned China’s environmental degradation in Tibet, linking it to the increasing frequency of natural disasters in the region. They criticised Beijing’s exploitative policies and called for accountability in the wake of the devastating earthquake.
2 Responses
It is important for the Sikyong, the legitimate leader of the Tibetan people to speak up to the world how the Tibetans feel about communist China’s insidious act of changing the historical name of TIBET for a colonial Chinese nomenclature! The imperialist, colonialist communist regime is leaving no stone unturned to ERASE THE MEMORY OF TIBET including the historical name of the nation of Tibet. The origin of the word Tibet comes from སྟོད་བོད་ Toed-Bhot! སྟོད་ means upper and བོད་ means Tibet. The upper region of Tibet is called སྟོད་like སྟོད་མངའ་རིས་བསྐོར་གསུམ་ The reason why སྟོད་བོད་ came into prominence is, it’s the first original Tibetan civilisation known as ཞང་ཞུང་ Shangshung civilisation. This civilisation was incorporated with Tibetan empire བོད་ Tibet in 934 CE after 26 rulers in a span of 700 years. It is regarded as the fountain of Tibetan innovation in agriculture, animal husbandry and mining. Later it became prominent as the birthplace of Lha Lama Yeshe Od (ལྷ་བླ་མ་ཡེ་ཤེས་འོད་) who invited the Indian Guru Atisa Dhipamkara to teach Buddhism in Tibet. This region is in the north of Tibet and that is why it came to be known as་ སྟོད་ Therefore, the name for Tibet originated from Tibetan history and it is not a name given by foreigners like the British, Mongols or Manchus. Britain never colonised Tibet nor did the Mongols and Manchus. The Chinese name which the CCP is attempting to impose on Tibet is truly a colonial name because Communist China is illegally occupying and colonising Tibet by sending millions of Chinese colonisers in the name of “helping Tibet” or “go west” policy! It is changing the population demographic of Tibet into a Han Chinese colony! It is also vigorously sinicizing Tibetans by forcibly removing one million Tibetan children into colonial boarding schools to be indoctrinated into communist ideology, Chinese culture, language and way of life -thus stripping Tibetan children of their own culture and language! Therefore, imposing the Chinese nomenclature is without a shred of doubt the CCP’s attempt to ERASE, EXPUNGE AND OBLITERATE TIBET FROM THE CONSCIENCE OF THE WORLD. This is clearly a case of genocide and any individual, group, organisation or nation who supports the diabolical attempt by the CCP to suppress Tibet’s historical name and impose a Chinese colonial name are guilty of being in cahoots with the CCP to commit the heinous crime of genocide! It must also be clear that another reason for imposing the Chinese name is also for political reasons. The Chinese name for Tibet refers ONLY TO THE AREA THE CCP CALLS TIBET AUTONOMOUS REGION! When Tibetans refer to Tibet, it consists of the three provinces of Kham, Amdo and U-Tsang! The CCP’s name for Tibet EXCLUDES KHAM AND AMDO TO BE SWALLOWED UP BY CHINA!!! When Tibetans refer to Tibet, it is མདོ་དབུས་ཁམས་གསུམ་ Kham and Amdo are inseparable part of Tibet! That is why the Chinese nickname is totally unacceptable since it dismembers Tibet to suit Chinese colonial and expansionist ambitions. Thank you to the Students for a Free Tibet members across the world for your tireless effort to fight the CCP’s insidious attempt to buy GOVERNMENTS, ORGANISATIONS, MUSEUMS, ACADEMICS AND INDIVIDUALS TO PEDDLE CCP’S IMMORAL PERFIDY IN ORDER TO BURY TIBET UNDER THE RUBBLE OF HISTORY!!! Your effort puts paid to their nefarious ambition!
Given the stark lack of much geographical knowledge by the underpaid journalist who write these articles, if they are actually writing them instead of relying on AI for it, do you even think they equate that Tibet and Xizang are the same place? Besides most people are probably getting their news-feeds from facebook and tiktok these days. The Tibetan alphabet is phonetically more similar to Sanskrit and Indo-European languages, whereas Chinese is character based. You would think that is an obvious clue as to the cultural differences in identity?
From ChatGPT:
Xizang: The Chinese name for Tibet, meaning “Western Tibet” or “Western treasure,” with “Xi” meaning “west” and “Zang” referring to Tibet. The “Zang” part comes from the Tibetan term “Bod” (བོད), which refers to Tibet and the Tibetan people.
Tibet: The international name, which has roots in old European and Central Asian versions of the name.