Tsering Dhundup
DHARAMSHALA, Nov 12: Chinese authorities in the so called Ngaba Prefecture have forcibly removed younger monks from the Taktsang Lhamo Monastic School, enrolling them in state-run schools over recent months. This action represents the latest assault on Tibetan language education in eastern Tibet by China.
According to a report by International Campaign for Tibet, the Taktsang Lhamo Monastic School, located in Ngaba, Amdo (CH: Dzoge County, Ngaba Prefecture, Sichuan) has been targeted by Chinese authorities for at least two decades. The school, with over 500 minor monks enrolled, had managed to operate normally in recent years despite routine restrictions.
However, according to the report, the cautious approach changed after the Ngaba Prefecture Education Development Conference in July 2024 which focused on implementing education policies to strengthen the “sense of community of the Chinese nation” and promote the integration of schools across ethnic groups.
As a result, 69 kindergarten schools in the prefecture have been closed, 8 merged, and 33 had their categories changed. With kindergartens effectively shut down, the focus has now shifted to monastic schools like Taktsang Lhamo.
Students resisting transfer from the monastery schools to government-run boarding schools are being detained, subjected to political re-education, and then forcibly placed in the state schools. Disturbing incidents include young monks being physically forced into cars to be enrolled in the state boarding schools.
The consecutive closures of private Tibetan language and culture-focused schools indicate China’s flexible approach to education policy, gradually and steadily achieving the goal of eliminating Tibetan culture under the guise of “universalization of education.”
Despite the monastery’s remarkable persistence in keeping the school open in the past, the current political climate and coercive implementation of education policies have made it increasingly difficult for the Taktsang Lhamo Monastic School to operate under the circumstances.
