Many travelers always get confused with the many spelling patterns of a single Tibet place name. This article will introduce the reason and give you a help.

Qamdo, Chamdo, Chab mdo or Changdu?

Any place in Tibet can be spelled at least four different ways. Tibetan Pinyin (Qamdo) combines Tibetan pronunciation with Chinese pinyin spelling: it's used on signs, tickets and such, and being the most useful for the traveller it's what Wikitravel uses too. Tournadre (Chamdo) uses more Western spelling, but is not often seen in Tibet itself. Scholars like Wylie (Chab mdo), which copies Tibetan writing precisely but makes pronouncing near-impossible (eg. Bka' rgyud is read "Kagyu"). Finally, any place in Tibet has a Chinese name, which can be read as Chinese (Changdu).