(TibetanReview.net, Nov08’26) – Due to a near-complete halt in the number of new refugees coming from Tibet, low birth rate, and emigration of existing exile population in quest for stable legal status, sustainable living conditions, and better future prospects for their children, the number of Tibetans living in India have seen a sharp decline in recent decades, and so also the enrollments in their schools and monasteries in the country. The issue has repeatedly figured in exile Tibetan parliament discussions in the context of ensuring the sustainability and vibrancy of the Tibetan settlements in the country.
The Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) has said that of the more than 38,000 monks and nuns in the 295 Tibetan monasteries and nunneries across India, Nepal and Bhutan, only 28% are Tibetans. People from Himalayan regions account for 68%, and other foreigners 4%, reported openthemagazine.com Nov 4, citing Mr Tsegyal Chukya Dranyi, the CTA’s Kalon (minister) for religion and culture.
He has said that whereas anywhere from 2,500 to 3,500 Tibetans crossed into India through Nepal from Chinese occupied Tibet annually during the 1980s and 1990s, “now, we hardly receive five or six people in a year”.
Much of the Tibetan Plateau was hit by an upsurge of large-scale protests against Chinese rule and policies in Mar-Apr 2008. China swiftly locked down the occupied territory and sent in its armed forces to crush what resembled an uprising, carrying out an all-out, shoot-at-sight suppression of the protests. It then greatly strengthened its security measures, including along Tibet’s southern borders.
The report cited Ms Youdon Aukatsang, of the Buddhist Women’s Educational Society, as saying restrictions since 2008 had sharply reduced arrivals seeking monastic education. It also cited former CTA minister Ms Rinchen Khando as pointing to Tibetans being prevented from travelling to India.
Also, due to declining birth rate, families have become smaller, leaving fewer potential monastic entrants. Dranyi has said households that once had six or seven children now typically have one to three. Later marriages, career priorities and migration to Western countries are also stated to be reshaping the community from which monasteries recruit.
Students now come from Ladakh, Spiti, Lahaul, Kinnaur, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim, alongside Nepal and Bhutan, and they contribute to sustaining the monasteries as they share religious and cultural affinity with Tibetan Buddhists. Aukatsang has said their participation has kept the overall monastic population fairly stable while the Tibetan proportion has declined.
In Tibet, China has for long imposed strict conditions and limits for enrollments for monastic education, including an age limit, enrollment-ceiling for each monastery, proof of entrants’ loyalty to the party-state, compulsory political education, party cadres overseeing monastic administration, and so forth.
Religious institutions are seen as the bedrock for the preservation of Tibetan language, scholarship, culture, and religious traditions and Aukatsang connects that role to the wider Tibetan political cause. China’s policies on monastic education in Tibet are also seen in this context as it seeks to Han-China-assimilate the Tibetan people in the name of promoting ethnic unity and progress.