Tibetans demand apology from the British Museum for use of ‘Xizang’

[ad_1] The British Museum’s use of the time period “Xizang” to label Tibetan artifacts in its Silk Roads exhibition has prompted criticism from Tibetans and rights teams who've demanded that the museum take away the Beijing-promoted time period and challenge a proper apology.

Utilizing “Xizang” — a time period China formally adopted in 2023 in all its official paperwork to check with Tibet — performs into Beijing’s makes an attempt to undermine and erase Tibet’s historic and cultural id, advocates say.

As an alternative, they demand that the London museum use “Tibet” solely.

Earlier this 12 months, the French museum Musée du Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac additionally got here beneath hearth utilizing the time period in its exhibit. In October, the museum mentioned it will undo the change in its reveals, following weeks of protests and petitions by Tibetans.

‘Inaccurate and deeply offensive’

The British Museum’s Silk Roads exhibition, which explores the historical past of the traditional commerce route throughout the important thing interval from 500 to 1000, options over 300 objects from the museum’s personal assortment and people loaned from at the very least 29 different establishments.

The exhibit opened in late September and runs till Feb. 23, 2025.

Individuals stroll in entrance of the British Museum in London, England, Sept. 28, 2023. (Hollie Adams/REUTERS) On its labels and in catalogue supplies describing Tibetan artifacts, the British Museum has used the phrase “Tibet or Xizang Autonomous Area.”

For instance, a silver vase gifted by the Seventh-century Tibetan Empire dominated by King Songtsen Gampo to neighboring Tang China was labeled as “Tibet or Xizang Autonomous Area, China.”

Tsering Passang, founder and chairman of the International Alliance for Tibet and Persecuted Minorities, mentioned use of “Xizang” is “not solely inaccurate however deeply offensive to Tibetans.”

“It mirrors the Chinese language Communist Celebration’s efforts to erase Tibet from the worldwide map, rewrite its historical past, and suppress the Tibetan individuals’s peaceable tradition,” he mentioned.

Tibetan teams — led by advocacy group International Alliance for Tibet and Persecuted Minorities and the Tibetan Neighborhood in Britain — wrote to the British Museum, first on Nov. 25 and in a while Dec. 18, citing their grave issues about use of the time period.