He Mountain Everest This is a synonym for extreme heightResearch and human challenge. But, despite their global reputation, few people know the origin of their name. This summit HimalayasThe highest in the world with 8,848 meters above sea levelHe was officially baptized as Everest in 1865 Royal Geographical Society. Until then, British topographers knew her as “Pico XV”Within the ambitious Great trigonometric review Indian subcontinent.
The proposal to call her “Everest” was Colonel Andrew inThen the General General of British India, who wanted Lay tribute to your predecessor and mentor George Everest. The argument was in the fact that, since there was no local name among Western people, it was justified to imagine a new one. This decision was approved by the Royal Geographical Society, and the name was consolidated in the cartography and scientific literature of that time.
Who was George Everest
George Everest was Born July 4, 1790 in WalesHe was a gender engineer and a geodezik and Director Great trigonometric review From 1823 to 1843The field during these years has strongly contributed Modernize topographic measurement methods And expand the knowledge of Asian help from a colonial point of view. However, He has never been to the Himalayas There was also no direct relationship with a peak that would ultimately be called.
Paradoxically, George himself Everest contradicts this form of tributeHe claimed that his surname was difficult to pronounce for residents of the region and that the mountain already had local denominations. Despite his objection, his surname was officially accepted and was quickly globalized. The dispute reflects the tension between local knowledge and The logic of the application typical of the colonialism of the nineteenth century.
Names that already existed
Long before the arrival of the British Everest was known and revered by the communities that inhabited the regionField in L.Tibetan Inga is called ChomolungmaWhat does the “mother of the universe” mean. The name Sagarmata is in Nepalior “Front of heaven.” Both names reflect the spiritual and symbolic value of the mountain and today remain in their appropriate cultural areas.
The British decision to ignore these denominations was not control, but Part of the imperial strategy Wider: name the territory as a form of symbolic appropriation. As Martin Thomas explains in his book Measurement of the world: geographical history of the British Empire (Manchester University Press, 2010), the act of measuring and purpose of geography was an integral part of colonial administration and its imaginary area.
In the twentieth century, the imposition is intensifying
Consolidation of the name “Everest” was accelerated from the twentieth centuryThe summit appeared on British maps and in publications of European geographical societies, and His glory multiplied after the successful Ascension of Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgai in 1953. Since then, the mountain has become a global icon under this name, although local terms have never disappeared and, in fact, have been restored in modern debates about toponymy and historical memory.
Today, Mount Everest also symbolizes the tension between science, imperialism and local cultures. In different parts of the world, the debate about the names inherited from colonialism open again, and more respectful alternatives with the original communities rise. The highest mountain on the planet, baptized in honor of a person who has never seen it, remains a paradigmatic case of how cards also tell stories about the authorities.
