Converting Tibetans into Chinese

Lobsang Gelek

China is allegedly forcing 1 million Tibetan children to forget about their language and culture in indoctrination boarding schools where they face abuse and anxiety. They are trying to cover it up but a UN investigation could force the truth out into broad daylight.

Tibetan students in the first half of the century were typically educated at home or in the hundreds of monasteries that dominated Tibetan culture and traditions. Some Tibetan children still attend schools where the medium of instruction is Tibetan.

But the vast majority is thought to now go to schools where the lessons are in Mandarin, with Tibetan courses limited to a single language class.

The Gangjong Sherig Norbu School and the two Sichuan monastery schools are among dozens of Tibetan institutions that have closed in recent years. Others include the Sengdruk Taktse School in Amdo Golog, Qinghai Province, and the Drago Monastery in Kham Karze, Sichuan Province. According to a Human Rights Watch report, the number of non-Tibetan-speaking teachers jumped in areas with ethnic Tibetan students. One goal, according to the report, appears to be to quiet restive regions through assimilation with the majority Han culture.

Visitors say young children who attend Chinese boarding schools are unable to easily communicate with older relatives who grew up studying Tibetan, creating a generational rift and worries about the loss of a unique Tibetan identity.

China has come under increasing international criticism for its educational policies both in the Tibetan Autonomous Region and in Tibetan areas in the Chinese provinces of Qinghai, Sichuan, Gansu and Yunnan.

Tibetan students attending boarding schools risk an “erosion of their identity.”

In truth, China’s “coercive policies seek to eliminate Tibet’s distinct linguistic, cultural and religious traditions among younger generations of Tibetans.”

 China bristles at the complaints. Officials note that much of the Tibetan population remains scattered, leaving boarding schools as the only effective way of ensuring students have access to quality teachers and educational resources.

Beijing says Tibetans aren’t forced to attend and many also include instruction in Tibetan language and history.

Officials also point to figures that show the number of Tibetans who can read and write (in Mandarin or another language) has increased dramatically, although official statistics are hard to verify and other surveys show varying literacy rates.

Gyal Lo, a Tibetan activist and sociologist who studied the boarding school system in China before fleeing into exile in Canada, told ‘Radio Free Asia’ that the schools serve to sanitize Tibetans, including children as young as 4 years old.

At that age, it’s easy to overwhelm the Tibetan language the students use at home with the Mandarin instruction they are bombarded with every day in school. Attendance is compulsory in everything but name, as families that don’t send their children to schools may be cut off from government benefits or job opportunities, he has said.

“The Chinese government has repeatedly tried to convert Tibetans into Chinese by eliminating the Tibetan way of life and identity. Now they are educating the youngest members of society to eradicate Tibetan identity,” Gyal Lo said. “This is the most dangerous policy”.

[Courtesy: Radio Free Asia]

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Vol 57, No. 35, Feb 23 - March 1, 2025