The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been attempting for decades to suppress and ultimately eradicate the Tibetan language using means like forcing children to study in colonial style boarding schools and arresting teachers, even as the locals resist the subversion attempt, a media report said.
More than 800,000 Tibetan students have been forcibly put into Chinese colonial boarding schools. In these schools, the instruction language is Mandarin, and children are politically indoctrinated, Tibet Rights Collective said citing a Tibet Action Institute report.
An interference with education is a key part of Xi Jinping's brutal campaign against Tibetans in order to attempt to replace their identity, further confirming that the CCP policies are continuing to provide a grave risk to the survival of the Tibetan language, the report said.
The Tibetans have been resisting the forced attempt at suppression of their language and culture, with large scale protests by all sections of the Tibetan society.
Back in 2010, at least 1,000 ethnic Tibetan students in China protested against what they called the erosion of their culture and language, the report said citing BBC.
The students were angered by changes to their education policy, limiting the use of the Tibetan language, and were told that all textbooks and subjects will be in Mandarin Chinese, aside from Tibetan and English language classes.
Fast-forward to 2018, Tibetan activist Tashi Wangchuk made the headlines when he was sentenced by the Chinese authorities to five years in prison for "inciting separatism" after appearing in a documentary by the New York Times.
The documentary highlighted Wangchuk's work on protecting his culture and his concerns that Tibetan language education was being heavily repressed by the Chinese Communist Party, the report said.
Earlier this year in February, a university student, Choedon was arrested after teaching the Tibetan language to children in Yamda during the school holidays.
Choedon had no prior criminal record, nor did the authorities have any evidence of any wrongdoing being committed by the student, the report said, adding that, she has not been seen since.
A similar case occurred on 1 August 2021, when Tibetan teacher, Richen Kyi, was detained at her home.
Following a lengthy campaign, including international pressure from United Nations special experts, Rinchen Kyi was released and quietly returned to her home by police on April 24 this year, the report said.
Describing the narrow-mindedness of the Chinese in deliberately attempting to erase the Tibetan language, Dalai Lama in a 2017 interview said that it would be impossible for the CCP to achieve its aim, the report said.
He went on to say that because of the fact that the Chinese and Tibetans both have an ancient culture, for harmony and stability to succeed one must respect peoples' culture and language, otherwise, it gets very difficult, the report said.
( With inputs from ANI )
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