100 Tibetan Scholars Petition UN, Urge China To End Closure of Tibetan Schools

By Tsering Choephel

DHARAMSALA, 30 July: A petition calling for an end to China’s ongoing forced closure of Tibetan private and monastic schools in Tibet, as well as the restoration of those that have already been closed, has been submitted to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on 29 July. Initiated by Tibet Times, a Tibetan media agency based in Dharamsala, the four-point petition has been signed by 100 Tibetan professors, PhDs, and scholars from the exile community, as stated in their press release today.

At the press conference held today at the hall of the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, Central Tibetan Administration’s(CTA) Tibet Policy Institute Director Dawa Tsering and CTA spokesperson Tenzin Lekshey were guest speakers. A few researchers and representatives from Tibetan non-governmental organisations were also in attendance.

The four points of the petition urge an end to China’s enforced closure of Tibetan private and monastic schools in Tibet and the “boarding school system in Tibet,” as well as the restoration of those already shut down by Chinese authorities. It also calls on the United Nations to advocate for the protection of Tibetan language, culture, and religion, and to seek publicity regarding the human rights situation in Tibet. Additionally, the petition demands “accountability” for the Chinese government’s violations of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which China is a signatory.  

Dawa Tsering, praising the Tibet Times’s advocacy initiatives, highlighted that while “the recent closure of Raga Sherig Norling School is tragic, it’s important to understand the underlying objectives and policies behind it.” The CTA’s spokesperson also expressed appreciation for the work and urged continued collaborative advocacy to counter China’s repressive efforts to assimilate Tibetan identity.

In 2000, Beijing adopted and enforced the ‘National Common Language’ law, which led to the implementation of policies marginalising Tibetan languages and culture, with the Chinese language taking precedence not only in education but in other spheres as well.

Following the declaration by the President of the People’s Republic of China at the Central Conference on Ethnic Affairs held in Beijing in August 2021—stating that “All ethnic groups should be guided to always place the interest of the Chinese nation above anything else, with their consciousness of different ethnic groups serving the sense of community for the Chinese nation as a whole,” —the Chinese Communist Party’s drive to assimilate all linguistic and cultural identities, especially Tibetan identity, into the dominant “Han-Chinese” culture has intensified.

The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy’s (TCHRD) report in November 2022, which was submitted to OHCHR, detailed the CCP’s measures and policies aimed at diluting, eroding, and subsuming Tibetan identity into Han monoculture under the Communist regime.

The news of Tibetan-run school closures—particularly in rural areas—the conversion of Tibetan-medium schools into Putonghua (Chinese)-medium education, the suppression of voluntary initiatives to teach Tibetan language and culture outside schools, the establishment of a large network of what rights groups term “China’s colonial-boarding schools,” and the recent closure of the renowned Ragya Jigme Gyaltsen Nationalities Vocational High School in Golok within the traditional Tibetan Province of Amdo, comes one after another. It clearly demonstrates the CCP’s objective to eradicate Tibetan linguistic and cultural identity in order to impose its Han-Communist culture and values at all costs.

China’s expansive assimilative drive in the education sector in occupied Tibet is highlighted in TCHRD’s 2022 report. This includes the Tibet Autonomous Region as well as Amdo and Kham regions, from preschool through primary school to private schools. The Chinese authorities have made Chinese the mandatory medium of instruction in kindergartens, closed six Tibetan primary schools “in the villages of Gemang, Bumser, Troshul, Asey, Warong, and Tharshul,” and on “8 July 2021, Sengdruk Taktse Middle School announced its closure at its annual graduation ceremony in Darlag County in Golok.” Sengdruk Taktse School was known for its “comprehensive cultural education with lessons in Tibetan language, literature, and philosophy,” in addition to the state-sanctioned nine-year compulsory education curriculum. There were 300 students and 40 staff members at the time of the enforced shutdown, and students were reportedly enrolled in government-built boarding schools.

The report also highlighted six other Tibetan private schools in Golok that “were apparently on the radar during the closure of Sengdruk Taktse.” Schools that could be at risk of enforced closure include “Ragya Sherig Norbu School, Machen Gangjong Rigzoe School, and Tsathang Girls School in Machen County; Inching Chutruk Rigzoe School and Dorje Den Skills Training School in Chikdril County; and Golok Tadrak School in Gadhe County.”

As feared, Chinese authorities closed Ragya Sherig Norling School in Golok on 12 July. The video that emerged from Tibet shows both teachers and pupils of the school in tears and grief as they gathered for the last time at the graduation ceremony. The Tsathang Girls School, also founded by Ragya Jigme Gyaltsen, was taken over by the Chinese authorities years ago, according to a former Chinese computer teacher, Ginger Duan, whom we interviewed recently.

At the press conference today, Pema Tso, Tibetan editor at Tibet Times and a member of the Tibetan Parliament in Exile, recounted the visit of two Chinese leaders from Tsongon Prefecture to inspect the region. Following their inspection, they reportedly lamented the lack of “education” in the Tsongon region and pointed to the Golok area as the most “backward” and in need of “re-education.”

What the visiting Chinese leader meant, Pema Tso explained, is “that Tibetans in the region have a strong sense of Tibetan identity and are preserving their cultural and religious practices, rather than adopting Chinese language and culture as the regime hopes.” Moreover, the visiting Chinese authorities criticized Tibetan private schools run by Tibetan monks as “inappropriate” and argued that these schools should be run by the “government” instead.

A copy of Tibet Times’s petition has also been sent to the China Desk, Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues, and Special Rapporteur on the right to education.