The propaganda department of China’s State Council, its central government, last
week released a white paper on “Governance of Xizang in the New Era.” Though the
term “Tibetan” is used to refer to the region’s people and geographical features
like the Tibetan Plateau, Xizang is used exclusively when referring to the
southwestern region’s official name. “The Chinese government was desperate
enough to propagate Xizang to create a Tibet of Chinese characteristics which is
unknown to the world,” Tenzin Lekshay, a spokesperson for the Central Tibetan
Administration, the Tibetan government-in-exile, said of Beijing’s report.
Lekshay said the Sino-Tibet conflict was long-running and that changing the name
would complicate rather than improve the situation.
Sure, I’m not asking you to respect anything in particular.
The only placenames mentioned in the article are Chinese or English.
Got me wondering what the actual Tibetans would call it (both those inside Tibet and those outside it).