China eroding Tibetan language, religion: Sikyong on 65th uprising day

Penpa said that the forced assimilation of nearly one million Tibetan children in Chinese state-run colonial style boarding schools and promotion of Chinese language in kindergartens established across Tibet denies Tibetan children the right to learn and use their own language and cuts them off from their way of thinking, customs and beliefs

Sikyong (president) of Tibetan government-in-exile Penpa Tsering on Sunday alleged that China was using policies to erode Tibetan language and religion.

On March 10 in 1959, the people of Tibet from the three traditional provinces rose in protest against the repression by the Chinese communist forces in capital Lhasa. (AFP)

“The People’s Republic of China is pursuing a policy of forging a strong sense of the Chinese as a single identity by erasing Tibetan identity, promotion of Chinese language by banning and minimising the teaching and use of Tibetan language and sinicisation of Tibetan Buddhism,” he said while reading the statement of kashag (cabinet) on the 65th fifth anniversary of Tibetan National Uprising Day.

The kashag is the highest executive office of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) and is headed by Sikyong, the political leader elected by the exiled populace. On March 10 in 1959, the people of Tibet from the three traditional provinces rose in protest against the repression by the Chinese communist forces in capital Lhasa.

Penpa said that the forced assimilation of nearly one million Tibetan children in Chinese state-run colonial style boarding schools and promotion of Chinese language in kindergartens established across Tibet denies Tibetan children the right to learn and use their own language and cuts them off from their way of thinking, customs and beliefs.

The cabinet expressed concern over alleged destruction of Tibetan Buddhism.

“The regulations by China are aimed at controlling the numbers, recognition, eligibility and curriculum of monks and nuns, and properties, revenue, expenditure and management of monasteries and nunneries. These mandate the Chinese Communist Party’s misappropriation of Tibetan people’s authority to select reincarnation of trulkus, restriction on all religious activities and movement of monks and nuns across administrative areas. These extreme measures expand on the existing Chinese government’s regulations to control Tibetan Buddhism,” the cabinet said in a statement on Sunday.

They appealed to the PRC government to allow Tibetans to learn and use Tibetan as their official language as guaranteed in the Chinese constitution and law on regional national autonomy.

Tibetan Parliament-in-exile also expressed concern over the Chinese government’s plan to build a major hydroelectric power dam in Dege area of Kham on the Drichu river.

About three thousand Tibetans, including monks and nuns, gathered in the hill town Dharamshala and held a protest march against China.