Tenzin Nyidon
DHARAMSHALA, Feb. 6: The Chinese government has reportedly intensified restrictions on Tibetan religious life by enforcing a ban that prohibits children under the age of 18 from entering monasteries. The development came to light through a video circulated on the micro messaging platform WeChat, raising renewed concerns over violations of Tibetan religious and cultural rights.
Notices reading “Children under 18 are not allowed in the monastery” have reportedly been placed at the entrance of a monastery in Kham, signalling stricter implementation of long-standing policies aimed at limiting minors’ participation in religious activities.
The enforcement coincided with the winter holiday period, which began in January and runs through the end of February 2026, when schools across Tibetan regions closed for their annual break. During this time, many Tibetan children traditionally travel with their parents on pilgrimage visits. However, Chinese authorities have reportedly escalated enforcement of the ban during the holiday period, preventing children from entering monasteries even when accompanied by their families.
Dr. Sonam Tobgyal, a researcher at Tibet Watch, said the measures are part of a broader and systematic effort to undermine Tibetan cultural transmission. “In recent years, a series of Chinese policies in Tibet—such as compulsory pre-nursery boarding schools for Tibetan children, the prohibition of Tibetan language instruction in monasteries during holidays, and the ban on children visiting monasteries during winter breaks—point to a deliberate deprivation of cultural nurturing during the most formative years of childhood,” he said. “Taken together, these measures constitute a colonial project aimed at erasing Tibetan cultural imprints from the everyday lives of young Tibetans.”
Unlike ordinary Chinese schools, state-run schools for Tibetan children include an additional administrative structure overseen by the United Front Work Department of the Chinese Communist Party, an agency tasked with managing ethnic minorities and religious groups. This department closely monitors Tibetan students, subjects them to ideological indoctrination, and advances policies of forced linguistic and cultural assimilation.
Through this system, Tibetan children are encouraged or coerced to abandon their native language and cultural worldview in favour of Chinese language, identity, and political loyalty. Critics argue that the objective is not education but transformation: to reshape Tibetan children into citizens who speak, think, and identify exclusively as Chinese.
There are growing concerns about the long-term consequences of these policies. Parents report that when children return home during winter and summer holidays, they increasingly speak to one another in Chinese, respond to questions in Chinese, and show fear or hesitation about entering monasteries. These changes, rights groups warn, signal not only linguistic erosion but also a profound alienation from Tibetan religious and cultural life.
When the evil Chinese communists invaded independent Tibet, they demolished and vandalised every monastery, every stupa, every Buddha statue. When we talk of Buddha statues we are talking of millions because every monastery was filled with hundreds and thousands of Buddha statues of all sizes and shapes! They destroyed hundreds and thousands of mansteries, temples and chapels that you couldn’t even count. It is estimated that some 6000 monasteries were destroyed but this is just the ones which are well known but Tibet was dotted with monasteries, retreats (རི་འཕྲོད་) stupas and mani prayer wheels all over the country, including river beds and mountain ramparts! The faithful built retreats in the most inaccessible mountain sides in order to hide away from the mundane existence of samsara. If you can’t imagine, how they looked like, the famous Taktsang monastery in Bhutan is a great example of mountain retreats in Tibet. The Chinese communists invaded independent Tibet, the marauding hordes destroyed everything on their path. They killed the monks and nuns and ransacked everything, monasteries and retreats and pillaged every monastery. They didn’t spare even the wooden beams! Tibet became a wasteland just like Gaza under Israeli bombardment! THERE IS NO WAY ANY TIBETAN CAN EVER FORGIVE THE CHINESE COMMUNISTS FOR THEIR VANDALISM AND WANTON DESTRUCTION OF TIBET’S MONASTERIES, PLUNDERING OF THE PRICELESS WEALTH AND DESTRUCTION OF ARCHITECTURAL BEAUTY WITH WHICH THE MONASTERIES WERE IMBUED WITH. IN SHORT THERE IS NO WAY TIBETANS CAN EVER FORGIVE THE SATANIC CHINESE COMMUNISTS FOR WHAT THEY HAVE DONE TO THE TIBETAN PEOPLE AND THEIR MOST CHERISHED HOLY SEATS OF WORSHIP AND LEARNING. WE SHOULD NEVER FORGET THIS DEMONIC VANDALISM OF OUR CULTURAL TREASURES FOR TEN THOUSAND YEARS!
Today, the Chinese communist demons are vandalising the minds of our children and destroying the healthy attitude of Tibetan children to their ancestral religion and faith by preventing young Tibetans to visit their holy monasteries in attempt to strip the children clean of religious influence to transform them into heathen Chinese communist barbarians. Chinese communists are the true modern barbarians! They are the greatest killers of all time in human history. No country whether east or west has slaughtered so many innocent people like the Chinese communist regime! Neither Genghis Khan, Julius Caesar, Josef Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Pol Pot nor Edi Amin have murdered so many people! The world’s greatest killer regime is the Chinese satanic communist regime! Buddhism is the life blood of the Tibetans. Our ancestors have sacrificed their lives to bring Buddhism from India to Tibet. The great translator Marpa Choekyi Lodoe visited India three times! In those days, there were hardly any roads to speak of except dirt tracks. The great rivers raging across wide canyons had only suspension bridges which were extremely dangerous. There were no shops to buy ones daily needs. The traveler had to carry everything from tsampa (Tibetan staple food made of roasted barley wheat) to utensils to make tea in the long journey. Marpa recounts that a mount which was obviously very steep, never seemed to complete the ascend while a plain that was so long never seemed to end in his memoirs! They carried their འཁུར་ཤིང་ (backpack- made of bamboo) stuffed with their tsampa to last for months along with utensils and trudged for months or even a year or two to reach their destination entirely on foot! Such was the will and determination to bring the holy Dharma to the land of Tibet. How Lha Lama Yeshe Od, sacrificed his own life by not paying gold ransom to the King of Gartok as demanded but instead told his nephew, Jangchub Od, to send Tibetan translators to India to bring the most learned Indian Guru Dipamkara Atisa to Tibet in the eleventh century. In those days, as a measure of respect for the holy Dharma, gold was offered to the Guru to receive teachings. Lha Lama refused to pay the gold to the king of Gartok who arrested him and demanded ransom in gold! Jangchub Od remained a hostage instead! Therefore, Tibetan Buddhism is the most precious thing for the people of Tibet. Tibet spend its entire attention on the flourishing and propagation of the holy and precious Dharma which the great translators and Pandits (ལོ་པཎ་བཀྲིན་ཅན་) have assiduously brought from India with great hardship and sacrifice. That is why, when the evil Chinese heathen communist barbarians vandalised Tibet’s holy monasteries, the great resistance བསྟན་སྲུང་དྭང་བླངས་དམག་ “The Dharma protecter volunteer army” came into existence. THEY CALLED THE SATANIC CHINESE COMMUNISTS ENEMY OF THE FAITH བསྟན་དགྲ་རྒྱ་དམར་ It started from Kham, spear-headed by Atuk Gompa Tashi and spread all over Tibet. THIS IS THE ORIGINAL RESISTANCE ARMY THAT COMPRISED OF TIBETANS FROM ALL THREE CHOLKHAS. Therefore, Buddhism is not only the life blood of the Tibetan people, it is also the unifying force for national pride and cultural bedrock. THERE IS NO WAY, WE CAN ALLOW THE CHINESE COMMUNISTS TO DESTROY OUR RELIGION. Communism is the enemy of all religions and they are hell-bent to destroy all religions because they cannot countenance a parallel power that commands respect from the masses. So, they will do anything and everything to destroy it. The Chinese communist barbarian’s plan is to root out all semblance of faith in the young Tibetans and gradually, these young children will have not an inkling of their faith as they become grown up people. They will not join the monasteries nor will they send their children to monasteries. Thus, the monasteries will automatically become defunct since there are no inhabitants! That’s how the demonic Chinese communist barbarians seek to totally destroy Tibetan people’s cultural foundation and its very identity. Chinese education according to Chinese dissidents are not educative but transformative. Children are bombarded with the “glory of the evil murderous regime and how lucky they were to wear the red scarf” and how they must lay down their lives for the cause of communism. The whole Chinese communist education is built on hatred of the capitalist west and how the children must be the protector of communism from the “ever menacing west”!
Tibetans have greater reason to sacrifice one’s life for the protection of the holy Dharma which has sustained the Tibetan nation and its people since Buddhism arrived in Tibet during Emperor Songtsen Gampo in the seventh century! WE JUST CANNOT ALLOW OUR BUDDHIST HERITAGE TO BE SNUFFED OUT TO FULFIL THE DEMONIC REGIME’S HAN CHAUVINISTIC AMBITIONS! WE MUST FIGHT TOOTH AND NAIL!!!