Indian mountaineers name peak claimed by China after Dalai Lama

Read RFA coverage of this story in Tibetan.

A team of mountaineers in northeast India’s Arunachal Pradesh have scaled a previously uncharted 6,400-meter (21,000-foot) mountain, which China claims is part of its territory, and named it after a late Tibetan spiritual leader.

The 15-member expedition, led by Col. Ranveer Singh Jamwal from the National Institute of Mountaineering and Adventure Sports, successfully reached the summit in the Gorichen mountain range near the town of Tawang on Sept. 21 after setting out from the institute’s base in Dirang two weeks earlier.

After scaling the mountain, the team named it Tsangyang Gyatso Peak, in honor of the 6th Dalai Lama, or Buddhist spiritual and temporal leader of Tibet, who was born in Tawang in 1683. He died in 1706 at the age of 23.

The act also symbolizes Tibetan resistance to Chinese rule and Beijing’s practice of assigning Chinese names to places in Tibet and northeast India, scholars said.

“China has been renaming places in Arunachal Pradesh with [Chinese] names, and this has led to calls within India for similar actions,” said Kalpit Mankikar, a researcher whose work focuses on China at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi, India. 

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The naming of the peak follows Beijing’s assignation of Chinese names to 30 locations controlled by India in Arunachal Pradesh earlier this year — a move swiftly dismissed by New Delhi.

It was the fourth time since 2017 that China had issued place names for geographical areas in what it calls “Zangnan,” or southern Tibet, within Chinese territory.

Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar addressed the issue, saying, “Changing the name of someone else’s house doesn’t make it yours.” 

In a post to the social media platform X, Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu called the expedition’s scaling and naming of the peak a “groundbreaking feat [that] showcases the spirit of adventure, connecting this remote land to the world.”

“It also opens new horizons for adventure tourism and exploration in Arunachal Pradesh,” he wrote. 

Nyenthar, a lecturer in Tibetan language and literature at the Dalai Lama Institute for Higher Education in Bangalore, India, said the gesture honors the deep historical, religious and cultural roots of the people of Tawang, while also potentially boosting tourism. 

He acknowledged, however, that ongoing border tensions between India and China might invite differing interpretations, given China’s renaming of places in the region.

When asked about the naming of the peak at a regular press conference in Beijing on Sept. 26, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said he wasn’t aware of the matter.

But he went on to claim that “Zangnan” is part of China, and said it was “illegal and null and void for India to set up the so-called ‘Arunachal Pradesh’ in Chinese territory.”

Jigmey Choenyi, president of the Bharatiya Janata Party minority Association of Lumlha District of Tawang, said there is no cause for concern that Beijing would object to or interfere in the peak’s naming.

“Tawang is part of India, and the peak is located well within Indian territory, not in China or, to be more specific, Tibet,” he said.

Translated by Tenzin Dickyi for RFA Tibetan. Edited by Tenzin Pema, Roseanne Gerin and Joshua Lipes.