While people will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first ascent to the highest peak on Earth next May, the Himalayan summit's original name has yet to become known among the international community.
It is appalling to see that Mount Qomolangma, the serene holy mountain of Tibetans, is still known to the world as Mount Everest due to the ignorance and arrogance of British colonialists of past centuries.
It is high time for the international community to stop referring to Qomolangma with a false name and to recognize the peak by its true Tibetan name, which means "goddess."
The Tibetan people called the highest peak of the Himalayas Qomolangma for centuries before the British colonialists attempted to map the mountain.
The mountain was marked as Qomolangma in the official atlas drawn during the reign of Emperor Kangxi in the early 18th century, when the British did not even know of the peak's existence.
As early as May 1952, one year before New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay successfully climbed to the top of the highest summit, the Chinese Government officially announced that the highest peak of the Himalayas in China's Tibet was originally named Qomolangma.
"It is a great mistake to refer to the summit of our country by the name of an imperialist colonial official," said the Chinese Government's statement. "All texts, atlases and other works should no longer incorrectly refer to it as 'Mount Everest' but as 'Mount Qomolangma'."
This statement, however, was ignored by the Western world, and the highest summit on Earth is to this day referred to by the name of Sir George Everest (1790-1866) the British surveyor-general of India.
Until today, the world is still misled into persistently humiliating Mount Qomolangma with English-language hegemonism.
As Tibetan scholar Gelek put it, "It is time for the Western world to respect us Tibetans by recognizing the highest peak on Earth by its Tibetan name, Qomolangma."
British colonialists raped the sacred mountain of the Tibetans by giving it a false name.
Those who genuinely respect the Tibetan people's cultural heritage will have no objection to calling the mountain by its Tibetan name. Once people know the historical context of the name of the Earth's highest summit, they will embrace the name Qomolangma.
(China Daily November 18, 2002)
