Primary school at Buddhist monastery forced to close
Over 300 young monks become lay students, deprived of Tibetan language class and textbooks
Chinese authorities in Dzoge County in Ngaba have forcibly shut down the Buddhist primary school of Taktsang Lhamo Kirti Monastery.
The closure took place last week between 1 and2 October. Authorities ordered over 300 of the school’s monk students aged between six to 18 to attend the government-run schools in Dzoge County as part of China’s compulsory education system.
A source told Tibet Watch, “The county authorities forcibly declared that there will be no Buddhist primary school in Taktsang Lhamo Kirti Monastery from today onwards, and all the young monks in the primary school of the monastery should have to attend the Chinese government-run schools in the county.”
In response to repeated requests by parents to allow their children to stay in the monastery, the county’s education department has reiterated its order to send their children to the government-run schools to receive compulsory education.
The authorities have declared the parents’ requests illegal and even threatened some of them, claiming that disobeying the order amounts to instigating illegal activity against the government-run education system.
The source told Tibet Watch about the parents now living in worry about the future of their children after being ordered, “That is the government’s decision and no one has the right to change it! ”
In their new school, the students are known to be currently instructed in an exclusively Chinese curriculum and deprived of Tibetan textbooks and Tibetan language classes.
Since 1986, Taktsang Lhamo Kirti Monastery has been giving special courses (རིག་གནས་ཆེད་སྦྱོང་སློབ་ཁྲིད།) to young monks before teaching them Buddhist studies. In 1993, the monastery built the Taktsang Lhamo School of Tibetan Culture (སྟག་ཚང་ལྷ་མོ་བོད་ཀྱི་རིག་གནས་སློབ་གྲྭ།) but it was forcibly closed by Chinese authorities in 2003. The monastery afterwards managed to establish Taktsang Lhamo Kirti Monastery’s Elementary Buddhist school (སྟག་ཚང་ལྷ་མོ་ཀིརྟི་ནང་བསྟན་སྔོན་འགྲོའི་སློབ་གྲྭ།) but again shut it down. Severe restrictions over monastic schools have however continued in Tibet since 2008.
Information supplied by Tibet Watch
