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China detained Tibetan youngsters for resisting transfer from monastic to colonial boarding schools

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(TibetanReview.net, Oct09’24) – Chinese authorities in a Tibetan area of Sichuan province have detained and subjected to political education four Tibetan youngsters for resisting transfer from their monastic school to a secular one run by the Chinese government meant to Sinicize them, reported the Tibetan service of rfa.org Oct 8, citing local Tibetan sources.

The students, aged 15-18, had been attending a school run by the Lhamo Kirti Monastery in Dzoge (Chinese: Ruò’ěrgài) county in the province’s Ngaba (or Ngawa, Chinese: Aba) prefecture before the Chinese government forced its closure in early Jul 2024. Parents were ordered to enrol their children in government-run schools. These “colonial style” schools teach all subjects in Chinese language with primary focus on studying the “Xi Jinping Thought on socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era”. This is meant to make Chinese of the Tibetan children under the Chinese president’s Sinicization drive.

A total of 300 novice monk-students were transferred to such Chinese schools last month, and the remaining 300 on Oct 2.

The four boys were detained on Oct 2 and subjected to several days of “political re-education”. They were then forced to attend a local government-run school after their release on Oct 6, the report said, citing two local sources who could not be named for safety reasons.

“Those who refuse to go to the government-run school are being detained,” the report quoted another local Tibetan source as saying. “Many children were also forced to attend political education sessions”, during which they are told of having been “negatively influenced by their parents and the monastery.”

Monasteries have for centuries been the main centres of learning for the Tibetan people who enrol in them at as young as 5-6 years of age. China put an end to this practice with a new vigour from 2018 in a renewed campaign to Sinicize Tibet.

Not only do children learn everything only in Mandarin Chinese in these boarding schools but they are also reportedly denied contact with their families for long periods. As a result, they are said to find it difficult to communicate with their parents later on.

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