Dharamshala — The Chinese government has officially renamed Tibet to so-called “Xizang” in order to erase Tibet from the present world and history. “When you write Tibet on social media, the word Tibet is automatically replaced with ‘Xizang’ or deleted,” said a Tibetan writer from Tibet. This move further intensifies the suppression of Tibet and its identity.
Since 2023, the Chinese Communist Party has replaced the name “Tibet” with “Xizang” in an effort to eradicate Tibetan identity, along with its rich history, culture, religion, and language. The Party also aims to weaken the power of the Tibetan freedom movement around the world, generation after generation, and to continue to fight for a free and democratic Tibet by exposing to the world how the CCP has stolen their land and oppressed their brothers and sisters, as well as their parents and family members, thereby revealing the truth to the entire world.
The CCP is not only attempting to change the name of Tibet to “Xizang” in Tibet and China, but it is also reaching out to other countries over which it can easily exert influence and give orders. It has even reached out to museums and libraries around the world, including the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac Museum and the Guimet Museum in Paris, as well as the British Museum in London. The CCP aims to completely erase Tibet from world history.
Consequently, Tibetans living in free countries, experts, academics, and parliamentarians have expressed deep concern over the CCP's intention to change the name of Tibet to “Xizang” and over transnational repression in France and England. Tibetan activists from Students for Free Tibet, the regional Tibetan Youth Congress, the Tibetan Women's Association, Chushi Gangdruk, and other Tibetan organizations have organized numerous protests urging museums in Paris and London to replace “Xizang” with “Tibet” and not to become oppressors or lackeys of the CCP.
The renowned Tibetan writer Tsering Woeser wrote on social media on October 20, 2025: “Given that ‘Tibet’ has now been officially renamed ‘Xizang’ by the Chinese government, and that when we write ‘Tibet’ on WeChat today, it is automatically replaced by ‘Xizang’ or deleted, I think we need to make ‘Tibet’ more visible and assert its legitimate presence.”
Tibetans living in Tibet are also striving to preserve and promote Tibetan language and culture as much as possible, while the Chinese government is implementing repressive policies toward Tibetan language and education, including forcibly placing over one million Tibetan children as young as four and five years old in boarding schools where Mandarin is spoken and taught, and arresting Tibetan academics, writers, and monks who generally teach Tibetan language, religion, and culture to younger generations in Tibet.
China-Tibet: The one-thing you need to know:
Over the past 70 decades, there has been ongoing political repression, social discrimination, economic marginalization, environmental destruction, and cultural assimilation, particularly due to Chinese migration to Tibet which is fueling intense resentment among the people of occupied Tibet.
The communist-totalitarian state of China began its invasion of Tibet in 1949, reaching complete occupation of the country in 1959. Since that time, more than 1.2 million people, 20% of the nation's population of six million, have died as a direct result of China's invasion and occupation. In addition, over 99% of Tibet's six thousand religious monasteries, temples, and shrines, have been looted or decimated resulting in the destruction of hundreds of thousands of sacred Buddhist scriptures.
Until 1949, Tibet was an independent Buddhist nation in the Himalayas which had little contact with the rest of the world. It existed as a rich cultural storehouse of the Mahayana and Vajrayana teachings of Buddhism. Religion was a unifying theme among the Tibetans -- as was their own language, literature, art, and world view developed by living at high altitudes, under harsh conditions, in a balance with their environment.
