Authorities transfer 200 Tibetan monastic students to state schools

Tibetans oppose the measure, calling the new facilities ‘colonial-style’ boarding schools.

Oct 3, 2024 - 05:00
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Authorities transfer 200 Tibetan monastic students to state schools

Read RFA coverage of this story in Tibetan.

Chinese authorities on Wednesday transferred the remaining students at a shuttered Tibetan Buddhist monastery school in Sichuan province to state-administered residential schools, two Tibetans with knowledge of the situation said. 

In early July, Radio Free Asia reported that authorities had closed down the Buddhist school of Lhamo Kirti Monastery in Dzoge county, known among locals as Taktsang Lhamo Kirti Monastery, affecting nearly 600 students. They also required parents to enroll their children in state-administered residential schools.

Officials walk at the compound of the Shangri-La Key Boarding School in Dabpa county, Kardze prefecture, in southwest China's Sichuan province, Sept. 5, 2023. (Andy Wong/AP)
Officials walk at the compound of the Shangri-La Key Boarding School in Dabpa county, Kardze prefecture, in southwest China's Sichuan province, Sept. 5, 2023. (Andy Wong/AP)

Chinese officials transferred about 300 of the students to state-run boarding schools in September, said the sources, who declined to be named so they could speak about a sensitive issue. 

And on Wednesday, the remaining 200-some students, aged 15 to 18, were forcibly admitted to similar state-run institutions, leaving the monastery school completely unoccupied, they said.

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The measure is part of the Chinese government’s efforts to control Tibetan Buddhist education and assimilate Tibetan youth, activists say.

Tibetans opposed the transfer, saying the new facilities are “colonial-style” boarding schools where children are separated from their families and taught a Chinese-language curriculum that promotes loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party.

Tibetan students learn Tibetan writing in a first-grade class at the Shangri-La Key Boarding School during a tour organized for media in Dabpa county, Kardze Prefecture, in southwest China's Sichuan province, Sept. 5, 2023. (Andy Wong/AP)
Tibetan students learn Tibetan writing in a first-grade class at the Shangri-La Key Boarding School during a tour organized for media in Dabpa county, Kardze Prefecture, in southwest China's Sichuan province, Sept. 5, 2023. (Andy Wong/AP)

Authorities previously summoned the students’ parents for patriotic re-education sessions and had them sign agreements not to enroll their children in monastic schools before the legal age of 18, the sources said.

Established in 1986, the Lhamo Kirti Monastery school initially provided foundational education to young monks before their advanced studies in Buddhist philosophy. 

A view of the Lhamo Kirti Monastery school in Dzoge county, southwest China's Sichuan province, in an undated photo. (Citizen photo)
A view of the Lhamo Kirti Monastery school in Dzoge county, southwest China's Sichuan province, in an undated photo. (Citizen photo)

After being temporarily closed in 2003, the school reopened under the name Taktsang Lhamo Kirti Monastic School, focusing on educating novices. 

Authorities also shut down another school at Kirti Monastery in Ngaba county, Sichuan province, affecting 1,000 students, RFA reported in July.

Translated by Dawa Dolma and Tenzin Dickyi for RFA Tibetan. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Joshua Lipes.