Nyingtri — Chinese authorities, under various allegations, have shutdown Tibetan schools, including Tibetan vocational schools. To our knowledge, China has closed a dozen Tibetan vocational schools in the so-called Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) this year, expelling Tibetan teachers, staff and trainers, the latest of which is the "Nyingtri New Dawn Vocational Skills Training School".
According to a reliable source, the Chinese authorities ordered the shutdown of the "Nyingtri New Dawn Vocational Skills Training School" (ཉིང་ཁྲི་གྲོང་ཁྱེར་སྐྱ་རེངས་གསར་པ་ལས་རིགས་རྩལ་ནུས་སྦྱོང་བརྡར་སློབ་གྲྭ) on September 4, 2024, without specifying the reason. The school had been operating successfully for years and, in 2020, was ranked second among the training schools reviewed by the authorities of "Management of Regulations for the Private Vocational Skills Training Schools in the Tibet Autonomous Region". But this month, the authorities ordered the school to close down.
The "Management of Regulations for the Private Vocational Skills Training Schools in the Tibet Autonomous Region" has announced that, after investigation and decision, the "Nyingtri New Dawn Vocational Skills Training School" will be terminated with effect from September 4, 2024, without giving a precise reason. The school is located in the Bayi district, in the Nyingchi City, Lhasa, Tibet.
Since 2013, the Chinese government implemented very strict policies towards educational institutes in the so-called TAR, as part of its sinicisation policy: teaching Chinese as the main language, subjects in Chinese, shutting down schools run by Tibetans and enrolling Tibetan children in Chinese boarding schools. The Chinese authorities also do not allow Tibetans to teach Tibetan to Tibetan children during the Summer and Winter holidays. They arrest Tibetan language advocates, Tibetan teachers and Tibetan writers, with the aim of eliminating the Tibetan language, culture, Buddhism and identity.
Chinese authorities in the Lhasa, Capital of Tibet, revoked teaching rights of a <<Tibetan Dream Vocational Skills Training School>> on April 10, 2024, claiming that it has violated the regulations of the Lhasa City Council. According to the sources, Chinese authorities banned Tibet Winon Vocational Skills Training School,Tibet Vision Vocational Skills Training School, Tibet Fashion Vocational Skills Training School, Tibet Good Future Bilingual Training Center in Lhasa City in May, 2024.
Chinese authorities also banned Shannan City Zhongbao Qiangdun Vocational Skills Training School in Lhoka, Linzhi City Built security Vocational Skills Training School in Nyingtri, Nagqu Bango Vocational Education Development Co., Ltd, and Former Motor Vehicle Driving Skills Training School in Nagqu City, in May, 2024.
Tibetan vocational schools generally teach skills and train people who have not had the opportunity to go to school, who have not passed their secondary school exams, or who have been unable to find work due to a lack of education and skills. These include thangka painting, art, sewing, clothing design, beauty and hairdressing, carpentry, hotel service and management, tour guide services, bookkeeping, computerised accounting, marketing, Tibetan and Chinese cooking and nutrition, elderly care, housekeeping, maternal and child care, digital imaging technology, e-commerce, Auto repair, maintenance electricians, etc.
These Sinicisation policies have been implemented in the Kham and Amdo Regions since 2021 by the Chinese authorities. They have forcibly closed schools run by Tibetans, including Gangjong Sherig Norbu School in Golog, the Sengdruk Taktse School in Golog, Gaden Buddhist School in Drago County, Sershul County Welfare School, Machen County Children's School, Gyalten Charity School in Karze County.
The main reason for the closure of the private schools, Tibetan Vocational Skills Training Schools and training centres in Tibet is the Chinese government's 13th five-year plan. The Chinese authorities are implementing various policies in Kindergarten, Middle School, High School and University, teaching them to learn and speak Chinese as their main language, with the aim of having 85% of the population speaking Chinese as an official language by 2025 and 100% by 2035.
In recent years, the Chinese government has implemented a stringent and oppressive policy targeting Tibetan cultural heritage, spiritual practices, and linguistic literature, with the explicit aim of obliterating the Tibetan language and identity, executed through various sociopolitical labels and tools, including the cessation of Tibetan language instruction in Tibetan schools, the closure of many Tibetan language educational schools and institutions, the compulsory enrolment of Tibetan children in Chinese-language boarding schools, the apprehension and incarceration of educated Tibetan intellectuals, and the systematic shutdown of Tibetan language online platforms and blogs.
China-Tibet: The one-thing you need to know
Over the past 70 decades, there has been ongoing political repression, social discrimination, economic marginalization, environmental destruction, and cultural assimilation, particularly due to Chinese migration to Tibet which is fueling intense resentment among the people of occupied Tibet.
The communist-totalitarian state of China began its invasion of Tibet in 1949, reaching complete occupation of the country in 1959. Since that time, more than 1.2 million people, 20% of the nation's population of six million, have died as a direct result of China's invasion and occupation. In addition, over 99% of Tibet's six thousand religious monasteries, temples, and shrines, have been looted or decimated resulting in the destruction of hundreds of thousands of sacred Buddhist scriptures.
Until 1949, Tibet was an independent Buddhist nation in the Himalayas which had little contact with the rest of the world. It existed as a rich cultural storehouse of the Mahayana and Vajrayana teachings of Buddhism. Religion was a unifying theme among the Tibetans -- as was their own language, literature, art, and world view developed by living at high altitudes, under harsh conditions, in a balance with their environment.
