माउन्ट एभरेस्ट होइन, सगरमाथा: आधिकारिक नाम सगरमाथा बनाइयोस्

The world's highest peak stands in Nepal, yet the world knows it by the name of a British surveyor. Its Nepali name is Sagarmatha. We call for Sagarmatha to become its official name worldwide.

How it got its name

• The Survey of British India called the summit "Peak XV". In 1852 Radhanath Sikdar calculated its height.
• Surveyor General Andrew Waugh, saying he could not find a commonly used local name, proposed naming it after his predecessor George Everest. George Everest himself objected — his name could not be written or pronounced by the people who lived there.
• The Royal Geographical Society adopted "Mount Everest" anyway in 1865.
• In Nepal the mountain is Sagarmatha ("head in the sky"); in Tibetan, Chomolungma. Sagarmatha National Park was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979.
• Its height, from a joint Nepal–China survey announced in 2020, is 8,848.86 m.

Why Sagarmatha

• Sovereignty and identity: Nepal's land should carry a name in Nepal's own language.
• A global practice of correcting colonial names: New Zealand renamed Mount Cook Aoraki / Mount Cook in 1998; Australia made Ayers Rock Uluru / Ayers Rock (1993, reversed to Uluru-first in 2002).
• UN guidance: the UN Group of Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN) encourages standardizing names as used locally (endonyms).
• Nepal's brand: "Sagarmatha" tells Nepal's story on every expedition, map and book.

Our demands

1. The Government of Nepal uses only "Sagarmatha" in all official communication, maps, tourism promotion, climbing permits and international forums.
2. The Government of Nepal formally submits Sagarmatha as the standardized name to the UN Group of Experts on Geographical Names.
3. Nepal leads diplomatic outreach asking international maps, atlases, media and mountaineering bodies to use "Sagarmatha" (at minimum "Sagarmatha / Everest").

Sagarmatha is ours — so should its name be. Sign and share.

This petition was started by Bhugol Park.

स्रोत / Sources

• Mount Everest — naming history (Peak XV, Waugh, Royal Geographical Society 1865)
• Sagarmatha National Park — UNESCO World Heritage Centre
• UN Group of Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN)
• Aoraki / Mount Cook — dual naming precedent (1998)
• Uluru / Ayers Rock — dual naming precedent (1993, 2002)
• Photo: Mount Everest from Kala Patthar, 2023 — Bijay Chaurasia, CC BY-SA 4.0