By Tenzin Nyidon
DHARAMSHALA, July 15: Chinese authorities forcibly closed the renowned Ragya Gangjong Sherig Norbuling school in Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Amdo (Ch. Qinghai) Province, according to multiple sources. The private institution, founded in 1994 by Ragya Jigmey Gyalsten, was shut down ending a 30 year old Tibetan educational institution.
A video released on Saturday by the Dharamshala-based Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) showed the emotional closing ceremony of the school where students can be seen mourning and in tears during the closing ceremony held on Sunday morning.
According to a report by Tibet Times, a Tibetan-language media house based in Dharamshala, Chinese authorities concealed the true reasons for the closure of the school. They claimed that the search and interrogation were conducted to identify any monks or nuns under the age of 18, threatening severe punishment and fines if any were found.
On April 12, the school faced multiple lawsuits and pressures from the Communist Party Secretary of Golok and other officials who had been conspiring to close the school for many years. Additionally, a student association formed in 2018, dedicated to preserving the Tibetan language was sued for using the jewel and lion emblems from the banned Tibetan National Flag as their group’s logo.
The school’s founder, Jigme Gyaltsen, faced false allegations of corruption and accepting bribes in his roles as chairman of the Snow Land Pastoral Association and the Qinghai-Tibet Trade Association. These charges were brought to trial, and on June 28, Jigme Gyaltsen was found not guilty of any crime.
Observers say that the incident is part of a broader crackdown on Tibetan language and cultural education where Tibetan language is the medium of instruction. The closure of Ragya Gangjong Sherig Norbuling school follows a series of similar actions in recent years. In 2022, Chinese authorities in the so called Sershul County, Kardze (Ch. Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, mandated the closure of all Tibetan private schools. According to information obtained by the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD), the authorities ordered that students be enrolled in government schools, where the medium of instruction is Mandarin, by April 20, 2022.
6 Responses
Hey tibet, get guns and fight and shut up. There’s no help coming from anyone. If west really want to help, they will send more advanced fighter jets and other expensive weapons to support Ukraine amd Israel, but we saw they used only expired out of date bombs and planes that they themselves wanted to put into dustbin. Ukraine can win the war in 7 days if right weapons had been given to them by USA, but USA only gave them cheap, expired, powerless weapons. In the west, they don’t even support their own allies or friends. They kill each other, and cheat upon their allies, for their own short term financial benefit. We Tibetan just watch those barbarians. It is not our war. It is their war. And their money. USA never gave us enough money to defeat communism, they in fact want communism to compete ( but not win nor lose but perpetual competition) so that money can be made in the process by unscrupulous military generals, politicians, administers etc. They make money out of death and blood and suffering and if these stop, they will be very sad as their income out of bloodshed still cease. War, or present ww3, is financially lucrative for a lot of secret stakeholders where a financial benefit from a small bomb goes for at least $4,500, even if kiling potential is just around 10 humans.
But Tibetan culture is being diluted in Europe and America Tibetans. Parents speak in Europe language to their children at home, and these kids speak a strange Tibetan we don’t understand. Tibetan accent is very poor in the west. Europe Tibet kids speak like this ” Nga la mingla la Tenzin Yoe” ( my name is Tenzin. ) literates as I have a name called Tenzin. It should be ” Nga yi mingla tinzin rey’.
Language, religion, culture, ideology binds together in a zeal to give birth to nationalism.
From the 19th century, many regions, states, provinces, nationalities under the Empires (Russian, Ottoman, Habsburg) united among themselves with nationalism to form nation states. These nation states/regions with the help of power plays and diplomacy among greater powerful countries (British,France,Russia,Austria,Turkey) got their Independence. I.e, Ukraine, Poland,Bulgaria, Romania, Lithuania, Finland,Sweden, Greece, Serbia, Hungary, Czech, Slovakia, Yugoslavia, Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, Bosnia, etc.
So CCP objective to curb/stop Tibetan Language, Religion, culture etc, is to curb, stall, stop the growth of nationalism of our Tibet which is the foundation to a modern independent state/country.
It is a zero sum game as said by John Nash. You get one you lose one. The graduate these institutions focussed on Tibetan language culture and religion are likely to remain unemployed in the job market. Those who attended mandarin language schools have higher chance of jobs.
Same in Tibetan exile society. Graduates from culture centric institutions such as varanasi and Sarah college produces graduates who good only in Tibetan society itself, but in that Tibetan society there aren’t many jobs – one has to wait until a staff leaves abroad, or dies or resigns.
Question – is it possible to be Both traditionally educated and and at the same time, modern educated in Tibet ? No. Universities either provide modern education or traditional, but not both. That’s the dilemma.
Many Tibetan students in India who succeed in higher education ignore Tibetan language to some extent and focus on STEM subjects such as engineering which are taught in English. Normally, only Tibetan students from suja and gopalpur focus on Tibetan language but the rest of tcv schools, nah they don’t care about Tibetan language or culture or tradition. It is about job pospects and engineering exams in Indiaa such as IIT and aims. Tibetan language and culture are not part of any Indian extrancr exam for engineering and doctor stidents, let alone police or civil service exams. Indian govt never included Tibetan history culture and religion in their college examss- they want to turn Tibetans into Indians. Same for china- they want to turn Tibetans i to Chinese. Same for USA and europe- they want to turn Tibetans into Anglo saxon eurooeans and become Christian Europeans. All are deceivers. Even HH Dalai Lama was deceived and Manipulated by all sides including the Chinese, Indian, Europeans, Americans, blacks, Hispanics – it is like a mela or party of deception to see who can trick Dalai Lama and make a fool of the holy monk for their own financial benefit. No one cared about Tibetans inside Tibet, they all used the suffering to steal more money into their pockets
This is the cultural genocide that is committed by communist China! It has been going on since the day Tibet was illegally occupied by the murderous regime. This regime is an anti-Tibet, anti-Buddhist and anti-democratic regime. In its constitution it peddles “the right of all nationalities to use their language and practise their religion“. But in reality, it is not worth the paper it is written on! It’s only to deceive the international community to give a semblance of “language and religious freedom”.However, in reality, it’s devoid of any substance! Now, look at the brutal Chinese communist occupation! Tibetans have no freedom to live in their ancestral land and are evicted at short notice at the whim of the evil CCP. Tibetan language is prohibited from being studied and preserved. Tibetan religion is annihilated by reducing the monk population drastically and Tibetan Buddhism is reduced to worshipping murderous CCP criminals! It is obliterated by dismantling Buddhist monasteries, Buddhist statues and expelling monks and nuns from their respective monasteries. Monks and nuns are forced to wear military fatigue and indulge in violent acts of hating the Japanese regarded as “Chinese enemy”! The CCP regime Is a racist which speed venom on Japan and America. It the yellow KU KLAX KLAN of Asia! It’s a xenophobic monster like Adolf Hitler who believes in the superiority of the Chinese race and is fearful of others! Tibetan people In exile who are insisting to befriend the CCP must now enlighten the Tibetan general public why they are still sucking up to the CCP! Look at the distressed Tibetan students whose faces are down cast with tears rolling their down cheeks and tell us what’s good about the CCP! The heart breaking situation in occupied Tibet is the result of illegal Chinese occupation of our country. Unless and until Tibet is free from the barbaric Chinese occupation, there will be no rights for the Tibetan people. Tibetans will be forever enslaved until Tibet is free from communist Chinese domination. Therefore, Tibetans must fight for the independence of Tibet. Many Tibetans have been deeply influenced by communist China’s propaganda and its flaunting of military might! They don’t realise that the very purpose of the CCP’s way of force projection is to make others cower to submission. That’s exactly what has happened to both Tibetan exile leadership and the majority of exiles and even India itself! For the last seventy odd years, India became a compliant country that the Chinese bullied and bludgeoned whenever the occasion arose for them to do so. The Indians kept hoping that if they kept sucking up to communist China, it will be richly rewarded by China becoming a pucca dost! India did everything the Chinese demanded including gagging the Dalai Lama, endorsing Chinese fabricated claims to Tibet. However, in return the Chinese only reciprocated by taking Kashmir issued to the UN, denied India’s admission to the nuclear club, supporting terrorists living in Pakistan and denying India’s admission to UN Permanent membership! The CCP pays gratitude with scorn! The Tibetan leadership did the same by not condemning the occupation of Tibet but instead being apologists hoping against hope that the CCP will get some sense of reasonableness in dealing with the custodians of Tibet. AFTER ALL TIBET BELONGS TO TIBETANS AND NOT THE CHINESE! CHINA HAS FORCIBLY OCCUPIED TIBET AND HAS NO RIGHT WHATSOEVER IN TIBET! Alas, the CCP believes it’s own propaganda and peddles lies after lies about its alleged “historical” fabrications which are nothing but disinformation to deceive the international community. Chinese have never lived in Tibet nor they have ever ruled Tibet! Their claims are pure fantasy and figment of their imagination. As it were, Tibetans must fight for independence of Tibet and to do that we have to take to task the countries that peddle China’s disinformation campaign. The US, India and Nepal have been in the forefront of peddling Chinese disinformation about Tibet allegedly bring “part of China”. President Joe Biden’s disgraceful diatribe about Tibet is a shameful act of treachery against the oppressed people of Tibet and so is India’s shameful act of betrayal against the Tibetan people! Nepal has put Tibet under the bus by singing to the tune of the CCP! The only nation in Tibet’s neighbourhood, who has not betrayed Tibet is Bhutan! The tiny nation has never peddled the disinformation that was put in the mouths of US politicians like former President Barrack Obama and present President Biden! The CCP put the words in their mouth to be amplified to legitimise Chinese illegal
Occupation of Tibet. The Indians are ruing the monumental blunder they made and are paying an extremely high price on the Indo-Tibet border!
We have seen the report of closure of 30 year old Tibetan School in Amdo Golog with whatever reason
the PRC mentioned to betray the world to fulfill the PRC’s chauvinistic hegemony. It is therefore
pertinent for those of us living in free democratic countries to preserve and promote Tibetan national
heritage with utmost altruism not necessarily in schools alone as where there is will there definitely is a
way.