The purpose of this campaign is to revert the name of the world’s tallest mountain from Mt. Everest to its local, original name, Mt. Qomolangma, within the annals of world atlases.
The campaign recognizes three distinct points:
- Acknowledgment of local naming preference—Most people understand that names are misinterpreted or misappropriated, deliberately or not, when people of one culture or region, who through arrogance or ignorance of another culture, misname geographical places. Once cultures communicate, however, people should make an effort to ensure that the region’s own geographical preferences are reestablished. Even if people have no reason to feel shame at earlier actions, ensuring the reestablishment of local preferences should be paramount.In this particular case, Andrew Waugh, whom was taught by his predecessor, Sir George Everest, to respect the local naming geo- graphic conventions, was not able to enter Nepal nor Tibet. Therefore, when he recommended a name to be assigned to what was then known as the tallest mountain in the world, he recommended Mont (later, Mount) Everest.
- Ongoing education—Reverting the name back to Mt. Qomolangma will encourage people to respect areas of the world that have unique attributes and stories which add to the diversity of what makes humanity strong. This includes a focus not just on conquering the mountain, but on preserving the region’s rich heritage.In addition, while the focus on this campaign is to restore the name of Qomulangma back in the world annals, the focus of this site will shift to that of restoring the name of other places around the world to those of local origin.
- Encouraging an environmental focus—The process of reverting the name back to Mt. Qomolangma will also create an increased awareness on the fragile ecosystem that encompass even the greatest of mountains. Such an awareness extends well beyond the simple renaming of the mountain, but create a legacy that will allows every individual on Earth to feel proud.
During this process, we will collect signatures from people from all over the world. While the primary focus will be on those who speak English, we will conduct other campaigns that will incorporate as many languages as possible. Once we have enough signatures, we will forward the results of such petitions to the people who can facilitate the changes: the pertinent government representatives who can effect change.