SINDHU JHA
The Central Tibetan Administration of the Tibetan government in exile, based in Dharamshala, is planning to draw up a map to counter China’s tactics of changing the names of places and territories.
The Chinese have been renaming major places in Tibet with a clear strategy to gradually erode their identity. With new names being used, the Chinese side believes the people will forget the old Tibet.
The Tibetan Government-in-exile is planning to draw up a map of Tibet with the Tibetan names based on historical records to counter China’s aggression. President of the Central Tibetan Administration of the Tibetan government-in-exile, Penpa Tsering Sikyong, had recently said they are preparing to draw up a map with the Tibetan names and it is yet to begin, it’s still in the drawing room. It will take may be six months to one year to develop this.
Tibetan activists have also appreciated this strategy. President of the Tibetan Youth Congress, has highlighted that for many years the Chinese government tried to fool the global community with their propaganda. For this reason, the Central Tibetan Administration is planning to come up with a new map to counter the Chinese baseless claim and their aggressive tactics in renaming different places and territories in all the Himalayan borders, they said.
Tibet’s cartographic history begins with Tibet’s map, published by western countries in the 17th and 18th centuries based on information obtained from Jesuit missionaries and traveller’s accounts. However, after the establishment of the Tibetan exile administration, various institutions and individuals made numerous attempts to standardise the Tibetan map.
