China has established a vast network of boarding schools in Tibet. The system of education, mostly in Chinese is highly politicised and students are forced to live separated from their families.
The Communist Party of China (CPC) touts these institutions as a means of providing education to a sparse and far-flung population but in reality it is the cornerstone of the assimilationist agenda advanced by President Xi Jinping himself, aimed at pre-empting threats to Party control over Tibet by eliminating ethnic differences.
The latest instance of the move to undermine Tibetan culture and religious education, China has reportedly forced over 200 Tibetan students from a previously shut Tibetan monastery school, the Lhamo Kirti Monastery school in the Dzoge county into state-run boarding.
In May 2024, authorities had prohibited the reopening of the Kirti Monastery school.
Two months later, parents of more than 300 students, aged 6-14, were forced to sign documents confirming their children’s enrolment in these state-run institutions. Radio Free Asia reports that in total, more than 500 students have been affected.
Subsequently, another 200 students, aged 15 to 18, were forcibly enrolled in these state-controlled boarding schools subsequently.
A 2021 report by the Tibet Action Institute (TAI) concluded that the impact of the colonial boarding school experience on Tibetan children and their families is serious on multiple counts, including psychological and emotional trauma.
The challenge is that parents do not admit Tibetan children of their own volition but are forced by the CPC to send them to the boarding schools for the lack of alternatives.
The report states that the implications of this education will affect a whole generation of Tibetans and warns that the implications of this strategy for the long-term survival of the Tibetan identity are grave.
Analysts are of the view that closure of monastery schools and forced enrolment of Tibetan students into Chinese state-run boarding schools is seen by many as an attempt by the CPC to erode the foundations of Tibet’s cultural heritage.
This is obvious because the state-run schools emphasise on teaching in Mandarin Chinese and impart patriotic education while diminishing the role of the Tibetan language and Buddhism, which are integral to Tibetan identity.
This move is part of a broader effort by China to assimilate the Tibetan youth through a highly controlled education system, which will obviously an impact on Tibetan language, culture, and religious identity.
The State-run schools titled “colonial boarding schools” by the Tibet Action Institute reportedly had around a million Tibetan children, according to UN experts (6 February 2023).
These residential schools assimilated the Tibetan people in every way possible and provided educational content centered around Han culture.
The experts also were concerned about the substantial increase in the number of residential schools operating in and outside of the so-called Tibet Autonomous Region, and the number of Tibetan children living in them.
The percentage of students in boarding schools in China is more than 20%, but the vast majority of Tibetan children are forced into these institutions.
The Lhamo Kirti Monastery School was opened in 1986 and initially offered classes to the monastery’s monks.
In 1993, a separate school was established known as Taktsang Lhamo Tibetan Culture School.
However, right from the start the school faced interference from the Chinese government, which intensified restrictions on the study of Tibetan language and Buddhist philosophy, which eventually led to its closure.
The monastery’s primary school later reopened to serve novice monks under the age of 18.
A perusal of the TAI report shows that Tibet’s education system has become primarily residential.
It is estimated that approximately 78% of all Tibetan students totalling 800,000, aged between 6 and 18 are in colonial boarding schools.
In essence, these were schools in jails, managed by local police. The Tibetan boarding schools are schools in every sense of the word, the only thing is that they are used to brainwash Tibetan children into becoming Chinese Han citizens.
The challenge is that parents do not admit Tibetan children of their own volition but are forced by the CPC to send them to the boarding schools for the lack of alternatives.
Apart from the schools attached to monasteries, Tibetans have been unable to advocate other options given Tibet’s repressive education environment.
The issue at hand is that the Chinese government has closed village schools in recent years including private ones teaching Tibetan and expanded the use of boarding schools.
These schools have been in operation now for several decades in the TAR and are the main means of education,
Eyewitness accounts and interviews conducted by TAI show that threats are regularly used to coerce reluctant parents to send their children to such schools.
Given the fact that medium of instruction is mandarin, students run the risk of losing their mother tongue and connection to their cultural identity.
Living apart from family and communities also means that they are unable to practice their religion or access the most authentic expressions of Tibetan culture and traditions.
China’s boarding school policy is discriminatory in that it targets Tibetans and other “ethnic minorities,” while the rate of Chinese students in boarding schools is dramatically lower, even in rural areas.
It is ironic that these boarding schools are very similar to the “re-education” camps organized for the Uyghur. The only difference was that this system saw the internment of over a million Uyghur and other ethnic minorities.
In essence, these were schools in jails, managed by local police. The Tibetan boarding schools are schools in every sense of the word, the only thing is that they are used to brainwash Tibetan children into becoming Chinese Han citizens.
The erasure of the Tibetan identity is thus well underway. The world is watching but is unable to do anything about it.
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