4 Tibetan teens detained for resisting going to Chinese schools

Tibetan students learn Tibetan writing in a first-grade class at the Shangri-La Key Boarding School during a media-organized tour, in Dabpa county, Kardze Prefecture, southwestern China’s Sichuan province, Sept. 5, 2023.

Chinese authorities detained four Tibetan teens from a shuttered Buddhist monastery school after they resisted being sent to schools run by the Chinese government, two residents living in Tibet told Radio Free Asia.

The students, aged 15-18, had been attending the school of the Lhamo Kirti Monastery in Dzoge County in Sichuan province, where instruction was in Tibetan and subjects included Buddhist teachings.

But in July, the school was closed because Chinese officials said students under 18 had not attained the age at which they could receive monastic education.

Instead, the nearly 600 students were told they had to attend government-run schools, where classes are taught exclusively in Mandarin and students study the political ideology of Chinese President Xi Jinping, referred to as “Xi Jinping Thought” class.

A view of the Lhamo Kirti Monastery in Dzoge County, Sichuan Province in an undated photo. (Citizen Photo)

The four boys resisted, and were detained on Oct. 2 and subjected to several days of “political re-education,” the residents who requested anonymity for security reasons said.

They were released on Sunday and from Monday forced to attend a local government-run school, the sources said.

For generations, Tibetan boys as young as 5 or 6 have attended monasteries for education and religious training, where they use the Tibetan language.

But since 2018, China has forced Tibetan boys to leave the monasteries, often against their will, and attend government-run boarding schools where the instruction is in Mandarin as part of Beijing’s “Sinicization” policy.

Tibetan children taken from homes, sent to Chinese boarding schools: report

The Chinese government has been under fire from rights organizations and the international community for its educational policies in Tibet. Critics say that the introduction of Mandarin as the language of instruction is an attempt to force Tibetans to assimilate into Han Chinese 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.

The move to detain the four students came after authorities sent the remaining 200-odd students of the Buddhist school to state-administered schools on Oct. 2.

“Those who refuse to go to the government-run school are being detained,” said another Tibetan resident, who requested anonymity for safety reasons. “Many children were also forced to attend political education sessions and accused of having been negatively influenced by their parents and the monastery.”

Translated by Dawa Dolma. Edited by Tenzin Pema, Eugene Whong, and Malcolm Foster.

 

By:RFA