(TibetanReview.net, Aug26’26) – Tibetan language textbooks are being revised and course materials greatly reduced or diluted as the entire academic curriculum is revised in Qinghai province and the historically Tibetan areas of Sichuan and Gansu provinces in a move to elevate the promotion of Mandarin language and Han Chinese culture. In Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) too, similar measures are being implemented while new textbooks on national unity are being introduced under China’s recently implemented Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress (Ethnic Unity Law), which targets the ethnic minorities in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), said Dharamshala-based Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (tchrd.org) in a report Aug 25.
The new law places education at the centre of a broader state campaign to promote a unified Chinese national identity among Tibetans and other ethnic minorities in the PRC. It therefore requires schools to incorporate the cultivation of a “sense of community of the Chinese nation” throughout the educational process and to use nationally unified textbooks. The new measures go beyond promoting Mandarin proficiency to place language, curriculum and national-identity education within a single legal framework, the group said.
Li Ji, deputy director of the TAR Education Department, was stated to have said at a press conference held by the region’s Information Office on Aug 12 that authorities would deepen implementation of a campaign called “Love-China Seeds planting”. Under it, courses on ethnic unity and progress would be offered in primary, secondary and higher schools, as well as in kindergartens throughout the region.
Li has also called for activities involving “interaction, exchange and integration” among teachers and students of different ethnic groups, stronger education on a shared national identity, promotion of the “national common language and script,” the compilation of new textbooks, and deeper incorporation of ideological and political education into schools.
Since Mar 2026, authorities across TAR were stated to have organised 1,882 activities publicising the new law, reaching more than 258,000 people.
TAR authorities have also said at the Aug 12 press conference that new teaching materials concerning the “Chinese national community” were being developed for use across different stages of education – from kindergarten to university.
The materials were stated to include The Chinese Nation Is One Family for kindergartens, The Chinese Nation as One Big Family for primary schools, Great Unity of the Chinese Nation for secondary schools, and Introduction to the Community of the Chinese Nation for universities.
The group said that on Jul 15, two weeks after the Ethnic Unity Law came into force, Chinese authorities were producing new Tibetan-language textbooks for Tibetan schools across Qinghai, Sichuan and Gansu provinces. Traditional Tibetan literary and cultural works were being removed from the revised textbooks, the group said, citing local source who could not be named.
The source has said that classic Tibetan language and culture teaching materials such as The Mirror of Poetry (སྙན་ངག་མེ་ལོང་), The of Water and Wood Treatise (ཆུ་ཤིང་བསྟན་བཅོས།) by Gungthang Kunchok Tenpai Dronmey, and Advice of an Experienced Old Man (ཉམས་མྱོང་རྒན་པོའི་འབེལ་གཏམ་), along with other traditional Tibetan literary and cultural materials, had been removed.
The same source has said that revised Tibetan-language textbooks were produced in 2026 and were already being taught in schools, while the old textbooks had been discontinued.
The new move is being made despite the fact that the above mentioned measures were already in effect even before the new law was passed. As a result, children in Tibetan-speaking families had increasingly lost their the ability to speak their mother tongue despite having Tibetan parents, the group said.
TCHRD said the combination of early Mandarin-language instruction, the diminished role of Tibetan in education, and changes to Tibetan-language teaching materials could accelerate the displacement of Tibetan from formal education and weaken the transmission of Tibetan language and cultural knowledge to younger generations.
The group noted that during his visit to TAR last month, Politburo Standing Committee member Wang Huning called for full implementation of the new Ethnic Unity Law and for publicity and education campaigns to forge a unified national identity. He also called for further efforts to promote the Sinicization of Tibetan Buddhism.
The group also took note of the fact that at a symposium in Lhasa on Aug 14 for representatives of non-Communist Party individuals to study, publicise and implement the new law, the Chinese government-appointed “Panchen Lama” Gyaltsen Norbu described ethnic unity as the “foundation of national unity, the cornerstone of social harmony, and the source of development and progress.”
He said the new law provided a legal and institutional framework for strengthening the “sense of community for the Chinese nation” and consolidating ethnic unity.