India Introduces New School Curriculum for Monasteries Bordering China-occupied Tibet to Counter Chinese Influence
By Tenzin Chokyi
DHARAMSALA 9 April: India is preparing to introduce its first-ever school curriculum for Buddhist monasteries in the contested Himalayan region bordering China-occupied Tibet to unify education programs and foster patriotism to insulate religious learning from China’s influence, as reported by various Indian media outlets.
According to the first batch of textbooks reviewed by Reuters, the new syllabus includes India’s modern and ancient history and its role in Tibet’s freedom struggle.
The report noted that the new texts emphasise mathematics, science and computer training, besides mandatory studies in English, Hindi and Tibetan.
Citing government documents, the report added that 20 monasteries near India’s 3,488 km border with China-occupied Tibet have agreed to adopt the new curriculum.
Some monks, like those from the Gontse Garden Rabgye Ling monastery in Arunachal Pradesh, have argued that their current syllabus which focuses on Buddhist philosophy, along with modern education “is carefully curated to meet the needs of children who may become preachers.”
While 24 News, an Indian media outlet reported that the government is set to implement the program within this month, other reports suggest it will take time as authorities are negotiating individually with monasteries to adopt the syllabus, requiring time to print new textbooks and locate teachers to staff the schools which are mostly in remote and sparsely- populated areas.
Buddhist monasteries in the Indian subcontinent, which have increased significantly with the influx of Tibetan refugees in the wake of the Chinese occupation of Tibet in the 1950s, now integrate modern education with Buddhist tradition in their curricula.
However, the new curriculum by New Delhi has pointed out that these courses lack consistency when compared to the standard national education framework, which aims to unify India’s diverse languages and religions. This effort to create a cohesive national identity is seen as crucial, particularly in light of China’s influence over Buddhist monasteries in the contested Himalayan region.
“We are trying to inculcate Indian identity through education along with Buddhism to make sure China can never control our monasteries in the Himalayas,” Maling Gombu, a Buddhist worker of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has told 24 News.
Rajeev Kumar, a director at NOIS, who has worked on the new curriculum, has pointed out that the non-religious education taught by monks or nuns is not acknowledged outside monasteries, and the new curriculum hopes to prepare Indian and Tibetan students for academic life in India.
Tibetan Buddhist monasteries spread across India function autonomously from the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), also known as the Tibetan Government in Exile, which oversees the Tibetan refugees in India and abroad.
With the introduction of the new Indian curriculum, which is expected to include Tibetan Buddhist monasteries, Tharlam Dolma, the CTA’s Education Minister, has said that “monastery schools have historically been managed by monks and nuns based on their funding” and that the “CTA lacked governance rights over them.”
It is reported that there are over 600 Buddhist monasteries spread across the northern states of Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and the regions of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh that offer training in both Tibetan and Indian Buddhist traditions.
Once the monasteries adopt the new curriculum, the Indian government will reportedly start providing funds to monasteries which are run by different sects of Buddhism with the help of foreign aid. The funds will be directed to recruiting teachers, paying stipends to monks and supporting them in annual examinations.
