Tibetan Govt in-Exile plans to compose book, map with original names of Tibetan counties: Sikyong Penpa Tsering

Tibetan Government in-Exile President Sikyong Penpa Tsering has announced that they plan to compose a book and map with original names of Tibetan counties.

He spoke about China’s policy of changing the names of places and occupying areas. He said that the Tibetan Government in-exile is working to draft a new map of Tibet while composing of a book on old Tibetan names in its original format to counter claims made by China.

Speaking to ANI, Tsering said, “The work is still under work. We are still discussing the logistics and people who should be involved in this. So, I think it will take some time, it’s not an easy job. It depends on how detail we want to go, or we need to go, so maybe to start with, we can start from township upwards to have Tibetan names in their original format, also the project will involve the composition of a book on the old Tibetan names of every Tibetan community or village that has institutional name so this will take some time. We are looking at one year but then every project when you have to go into detail, particularly look at boundary issues and all that there are sensitive issues also involved which we need to be very careful.”

Asked whether it will counter China, he said, “The Chinese cartographic aggression is not only against Tibet, they are doing it in the East China Sea, in the South China Sea, with India in Arunachal Pradesh and Ladakh and so this is the overall policy of the Chinese government in expanding their territorial claims in the regions. So, which also expresses their imperial or colonial mindset about getting other territories under their domain which they claim as their sovereign areas but this all largely contested.”

Sikyong Penpa Tsering welcomed the disengagement that happened between India and China in Ladakh. However, he highlighted the new developments that have been taking place in China, including naming two counties of Ladakh and building a dam.

When asked whether India should take measures to counter China, Sikyong Penpa Tsering responded, “Whenever we feel that India – China relation is taking one step forward then it goes back two steps so it’s good that disengagement had happened in Ladakh and both the governments are happy but then again there are new developments on China naming two counties in the area of north of Ladakh and then the Brahmaputra building of a mega dam, which we have been talking for the many years and now came in the newspapers and Indian government has also responded to this.”

“But not heard what Bangladesh has but this is going to be worse than a nuclear weapon because if something happens to that size of a dam that is why I say that the present quake that happened in Tibet is a nature’s warning to the Chinese government that whenever they undertake mega infrastructure projects they have to do a thorough transparent environmental impact, particularly on the downstream countries,” he added.

Recently China used the term ‘Xizang’ for Tibet during the recent earthquake reports and Tibetans have expressed their resentment against it.

The Tibetan people in exile expressed dismay over China’s use of ‘Xizang’ term for Tibet to gain global recognition in the wake of the recent earthquake in the region. Tibetans in exile believe that China and some media houses are using mournful events to downplay the name Tibet which is disheartening.

Speaking to ANI, Tenzin Phakdon, an activist from Students for a Free Tibet, said, “It is very sad to see not only China but then some paid Chinese media and also some of the major media in the world using Xizang instead of Tibet. We are very saddened to see the loss of over 128 lives of my brothers and sisters inside Tibet due to the recent earthquake but then China and some other media are using this mournful event to downplay the name Tibet itself as it is not only China but some other media houses too. So, we will definitely tackle all those media houses and we have also reached out to some media houses, not to use Xizang and use the word Tibet… we are very worried… in the UN they are using Xinjang instead of Uyghur and East Turkistan, so we fear that in the next 10 years or 20 years, it might happen also to Tibetans so that’s why we have been working very hard to let everybody know at the grassroot level that it is Tibet and not Xizang.”

Another Tibetan activist in Dharamshala, Tenzin Rinzin told ANI, “As Tibetans, we feel this is one of the most disgusting moves by China. It’s one of the policies actually to propagate and distort the very history of Tibet. Tibet is and was always called Tibet. There was no other name in history if you look back. This has been a Chinese manoeuvre to distort history and we have seen especially now it’s disheartening to see international media houses, saying the same tune of the CCP. They are using Xizang and some of them are even using China’s Tibet which is absurd and I think such negligence, such mistake is kowtowing to China’s propaganda. This is something that we object that we should be careful in terms of using those terms because these are propagated by China.”