Tibet - Names

Names

The Tibetan name for their land, Bod བོད་, means "Tibet" or "Tibetan Plateau", although it originally meant the central region around Lhasa, now known in Tibetan as Ü. The Standard Tibetan pronunciation of Bod, is transcribed Bhö in Tournadre Phonetic Transcription, Bö in the THDL system, and Poi in Tibetan Pinyin. Some scholars believe the first written reference to Bod "Tibet" was the ancient Bautai people recorded in the Egyptian Greek works Periplus of the Erythraean Sea (A.D. 1st cent.) and Geographia (Ptolemy, A.D. 2nd cent.), itself from the Sanskrit form Bhauṭṭa of the Indian geographical tradition.

The modern Mandarin exonym for "Tibet" is Zàngqū (藏区), which derives by metonymy from the Tsang region around Shigatse, plus a prefix meaning "western". Tibetan people, language, and culture regardless of where they are from are referred to as Zàng (藏), although the geographical term Xīzàng is often limited to the Tibet Autonomous Region. The term Xīzàng was coined during the Qing Dynasty in the reign of the Jiaqing Emperor (1796–1820).

The best-known medieval Chinese name for Tibet is 吐蕃 (also 土蕃 or 土番); in modern Mandarin, this is pronounced Tǔfān or Tǔbō. Whether Tǔbō is a valid pronunciation is the subject of debate, enjoying strong support in Mainland China, but with some experts arguing that it is promoted purely for political reasons.

This name first appears in Chinese characters as 土番 in the 7th-century (Li Tai) and as 吐蕃 in the 10th-century (Book of Tang describing 608–609 emissaries from Tibetan King Namri Songtsen to Emperor Yang of Sui). In the Middle Chinese spoken during that period, as reconstructed by William H. Baxter, 土番 was pronounced thux-phjon and 吐蕃 was pronounced thux-pjon (with the x representing tone).

Other pre-modern Chinese names for Tibet include 烏斯國 (wūsīguó, cf. Tibetan dbus, Ü, ), 烏斯藏 (wūsīzàng, cf. Tibetan dbus-gtsang, Ü-Tsang), 圖伯特 (túbótè), and 唐古忒 (tánggǔtè, cf. Tangut). American Tibetologist Elliot Sperling has argued in favor of a recent tendency by some authors writing in Chinese to revive the term Túbótè (simplified Chinese: 图伯特; traditional Chinese: 圖伯特) for modern use in place of Xīzàng, on the grounds that Túbótè more clearly includes the entire Tibetan plateau rather than simply the Tibet Autonomous Region.

The English word Tibet or Thibet dates back to the 18th century. Historical linguists generally agree that "Tibet" names in European languages are loanwords from Arabic طيبة، توبات (Ṭībat or Tūbātt), itself deriving from Turkic Töbäd "The Heights" (plural of töbän).