The state-run Guimet Museum recently renamed its Nepal-Tibet room as "Himalayan world", which the groups say is "sowing confusion about Tibet's cultural distinctiveness with the political aim of erasing Tibet's existence".

They also accuse it of removing references to "Tibetan art" in its collection, with the traditional Buddhist identity of the region an object of intense struggle between pro-Tibetan groups and Beijing.

Lawyers representing the plaintiffs in France, Lily Ravon and William Bourdon, told AFP it was "hard not to see a political undertone and a deliberate choice by the Guimet Museum to align itself with Chinese lobbying efforts."

Contacted by AFP, the museum denied any intention to "render a culture invisible, let alone deny Tibetan identity", and said the use of "Himalayan world" was meant to "highlight the richness of cultural interactions across this vast and complex region".

Located in the upmarket 16th district, the Guimet Museum specialises in Asian art.

Tibet is officially one of China's "autonomous regions", but Beijing has largely abandoned the phrase "Tibet Autonomous Region" in favour of "Xizang Autonomous Region" in its official non-Chinese-language communications.

Beijing is extremely sensitive about the issue of Tibetan identity and anything seen as challenging its sovereignty over the strategic Himalayan plateau that borders India, Nepal and Bhutan.

The French associations argue in their legal complaint that the changes at the Guimet Museum "lack any scientific or historical basis" and breach the museum's statutory mission to contribute to "education, training and research".

France and China marked 60 years of diplomatic relations last year, when controversy about references to Tibet in Parisian art collections first emerged.

Around 30 researchers published an open letter accusing the Guimet Museum and the Quai Branly Museum, which is dedicated to indigenous arts, of "bowing to China" by removing the word Tibet and of complying with its "demands ... to rewrite history".