Nepal’s eminent historian late Baburam Acharya is credited with the Nepali name Sagarmatha () for
Mount Everest that straddles Nepal-China
border. Previously, Nepal had no official name of its own for the world’s tallest peak in Nepali, although names among many
Nepalese people -
Sherpa,
Limbu, etc. existed long ago. What may not be true however is that he coined the name for the mountain. Baburam wrote an essay in the late 1930s in which he said that among the local population of the remote Everest region the mountain was popular by the name Sagarmatha (meaning the Head of the Earth touching the Heaven); some even called it Jhomolongma. In his own words: The then rulers of Nepal took exception to publication of the essay and the historian was admonished. In his book
A Brief Account of Nepal, Baburam wrote In his book
China, Tibet and Nepal Baburam wrote: "The name Sagarmatha already existed; I only discovered it; it is not that I christened the mountain with a new name." Two decades after the publication of the essay, the Nepalese government gave official recognition to the name. == Publications ==