Tibet will never be Xizang

Renaming is a classic tool of colonization. By calling Tibet Xizang, Beijing seeks to fold Tibet into the cartography of ‘China proper, stripping away its distinctiveness.

- KHEDROOB THONDUP

Language is never neutral. It carries memory, identity, and the power to shape how a people are seen in the world, For Tibetans, the word Tibet—or Bod in our own tongue—is not merely a geographic marker. It is the vessel of our civilization, our faith, our struggle, and our dignity. That is why Tibetans will never use, nor relate to, the word Xizang, the term imposed by the Chinese state to Sinicize our homeland and erase our identity.