A livid China said the act of a group of Indian mountaineers naming a peak in Arunachal Pradesh after the 6th Dalai Lama was illegal. Addressing a media briefing, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson reiterated the nation’s longstanding claim on Arunachal Pradesh, which it calls Zangnan.
“It’s illegal, and null and void for India to set up the so-called ‘Arunachal Pradesh’ in Chinese territory,” spokesperson Lin Jian said.
On September 25, a team of the National Institute of Mountaineering and Adventure Sports (NIMAS), under the Ministry of Defence, scaled an unnamed and uncharted peak in Arunachal Pradesh and named it after the 6th Dalai Lama, Tsangyang Gyatso. The expedition to the 20,942-foot peak was led by director Colonel Ranveer Singh Jamwal.
According to a Defence Ministry press release, the naming of the peak after the 6th Dalai Lama was a tribute to his “timeless wisdom and profound contributions” to the Monpa community. The Monpa community is the only nomadic tribe in Northeast India.
