Latest news with #Tibetans
Hindustan Times
2 days ago
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
New report accuses China of ‘indoctrinating' Tibetan children in boarding schools
Tibetan children face abuse, neglect, indoctrination, and identity erasure in the Chinese government's network of colonial boarding schools and preschools in Tibet, an advocacy group has accused. The Tibet Action Institute (TAI) in its recent report has accused the Chinese government of using Tibetan children as a means to aggressively and forcibly assimilate Tibetans, threatening their survival as distinct people. The report found that students are restricted from enrolling in Tibetan language classes or engaging in religious activities, even during school breaks. As per activists, such boarding schools are now believed to house approximately one million Tibetan children, however, the exact number is difficult to confirm. The report titled 'When They Came to Take Our Children': China's Colonial Boarding Schools and the Future of Tibet' says the children are separated from their families at an early age –– as young as four years old in some rural areas –– and indoctrinated to be loyal to the Chinese Communist Party. 'There is now additional evidence that even younger children are being compelled to board across Tibet. At present, Tibetan children aged three or four to six must attend Chinese-language preschool,' the report states. TAI, is a US based advocacy group created in 2009 to assist Tibetans after large protests were held before the Beijing Olympics in 2008. The research for the report is based on rare firsthand accounts by Tibetans either still in Tibet or who have recently escaped. This includes fifteen in-depth interviews conducted between 2023 and 2024 with Tibetans who had recently fled to India, statements published online by people still in Tibet, and approximately 75 private or public comments by people in Tibet from January 2022 to April 2025 that were documented by Tibetans in exile. The report stated that China's education policies in Tibet seek to deracinate Tibetan children from their culture, language, and identity. In the colonial boarding school system, children are first separated from their families, and then bombarded with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) ideology through carefully curated images, texts, and songs, all in Chinese language. The report also added that as one of the persons who recently escaped from Tibet as saying: In boarding schools, the indoctrination process begins from a very young age. The children are taken away from their parents, restricted from speaking their mother tongue – Tibetan – taught in Chinese language, forced to learn and speak Chinese, and taught only state-approved history. A stated in the report, former boarding school student described how politicised education was implemented in their classroom: 'All the materials put on our class walls were in Chinese. All [my] class teachers [were] Chinese…. In all the classes, we had pictures of Xi Jinping, Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, and Hu Jintao.' The report outlined that all students in China are subjected to a politicised curriculum that is intended to cultivate loyalty to Xi Jinping and the Communist Party. However, in Tibet, education is part of a larger effort to methodically strip away a sense of Tibetaness and manipulate students' primary identification to be Chinese, rather than Tibetan. Notably, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights echoed the Special Rapporteurs', in March 2023, concern that the colonial boarding schools violate China's obligations under the ICESCR, urging the Chinese government to 'abolish immediately the coerced residential (boarding) school system imposed on Tibetan children. 'A generation of Tibetan children is being harmed by China's colonial boarding school policy — socially, emotionally, and psychologically,' said Lhadon Tethong, director of TAI, calling on the international community to step up all efforts to push the Chinese government to abolish this abusive and coercive system. TAI urges the United Nations and concerned governments to call on the Chinese government to immediately conduct a public investigation into the alleged abuses, deaths, and mental health concerns of Tibetan children in Chinese state-run boarding schools, to abolish the coercive system of boarding schools and preschools, and to enable Tibetan children to access high-quality mother tongue education while living at home.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Newly discovered 'ghost' lineage linked to ancient mystery population in Tibet, DNA study finds
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. A 7,100-year-old skeleton from China has revealed a "ghost" lineage that scientists had only theorized about until now, a new study finds. Researchers made the discovery while studying ancient skeletons that could help them map the diverse genetics of central China. The DNA of this ghost lineage individual, an Early Neolithic woman who was buried at the Xingyi archaeological site in southwestern China's Yunnan province, also holds clues to the origins of Tibetan people. "There likely were more of her kind, but they just haven't been sampled yet," study co-author Qiaomei Fu, a paleontologist at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing, told Live Science in an email. Fu and colleagues detailed their analysis of 127 human genomes from southwestern China in a study published May 29 in the journal Science. Most of the skeletons that they sampled were dated between 1,400 and 7,150 years ago and came from Yunnan province, which today has the highest ethnic and linguistic diversity in all of China. "Ancient humans that lived in this region may be key to addressing several remaining questions on the prehistoric populations of East and Southeast Asia," the researchers wrote in the study. Those unanswered questions include the origins of people who live on the Tibetan Plateau, as previous studies have shown that Tibetans have northern East Asian ancestry along with a unique ghost ancestry that has mystified researchers. The oldest person the researchers tested was found to be the missing link between Tibetans and the ghost' lineage. Related: 'Mystery population' of human ancestors gave us 20% of our genes and may have boosted our brain function At the Xingyi archaeological site in central Yunnan, dozens of burials were discovered that dated from the Neolithic period (7000 to 2000 B.C.) to the Bronze Age (2000 to 770 B.C.). Beneath all the other burials, archaeologists found a female skeleton with no grave goods. Carbon dating revealed she lived about 7,100 years ago, and isotope analysis of her diet showed she was probably a hunter-gatherer. But genomic analysis of the woman, who has been named Xingyi_EN, was a surprise: her ancestry was not very similar to East and South Asians but was closer to a "deeply diverged" Asian population whose genes contributed to the ghost population only seen in modern Tibetans. A "ghost population" refers to a group of people who were not previously known from skeletal remains but whose existence has been inferred through statistical analysis of ancient and modern DNA. The mystery ancestry seen in Xingyi_EN does not match Neanderthals or Denisovans, both well-known ancient populations that did contribute some "ghost" DNA to humans. Rather, Xingyi_EN is evidence of a previously unknown lineage that diverged from other humans at least 40,000 years ago, according to the researchers, and has been named the Basal Asian Xingyi lineage. RELATED STORIES —Ancient jawbone dredged off Taiwan seafloor belongs to mysterious Denisovan, study finds —DNA from mysterious 'Denisovans' helped modern humans survive —Now-extinct relative had sex with humans far and wide For thousands of years, the lineage was separated from other human groups, meaning there was no admixture — interbreeding that would mix their DNA. "The possible isolation allowed this ancestry to persist without apparent admixture with other populations," Fu said. But at some point, Xingyi_EN's relatives did interbreed with other groups of East Asian ancestry, mixing DNA. "The mixed population has lasted for quite a long time and contributed genes to some Tibetans today," Fu explained. However, these results should be taken with caution, the researchers noted in the study. Given the genetic evidence comes from just a single person, further research is needed to fully understand the relationship between Xingyi_EN and the Tibetan ghost lineage.
Miami Herald
4 days ago
- Politics
- Miami Herald
China's ‘Colonial' Schools Erasing Tibet Culture: Rights Group
The Chinese government is reportedly seeking to tighten its control over Tibet by targeting its youngest residents. At "colonial boarding schools across the regions, students are increasingly denied access to their native language and culture—with many subjected to neglect and physical abuse," according to a report released Thursday by the U.S.-based advocacy group Tibet Action Institute. The People's Republic of China seized control of Tibet—which it refers to as Xizang—in 1950, claiming the region needed to be "liberated" from its theocratic and feudal system. Major uprisings followed in 1959, the late 1980s, and again in 2008, each prompting violent crackdowns by Chinese forces. Critics say Tibet—birthplace of the Dalai Lama—has effectively become a police state, with international observers largely shut out except during tightly managed government tours. Newsweek reached out to the Chinese Foreign Ministry and the United Nations Human Rights Office with emailed requests for comment. Observers say the crackdown has only intensified since Chinese President Xi Jinping came to power in late 2012. This tightening of control has extended beyond public spaces into the classroom. Tibet's education system is now predominantly residential, with as many as 900,000 children between the ages of 6 and 18 estimated to be enrolled in state-run boarding schools, the group estimates. At least 100,000 children as young as 4 have been placed in boarding preschool. These most vulnerable of Tibetans are being subjected to an intense state-directed Sinicization campaign "in order to cement the transformation of Tibetan children's identity and allegiance," according to a new report by the U.S.-based Tibet Action Institute, which based its findings on interviews with Tibetans who escaped to India, and secret communications with individuals still living in the region. While separated from their families, students receive an education delivered exclusively in Chinese and focused on Chinese history, cultural heritage and national identity. "But when these children return home, they cannot speak in Tibetan with their family members. They only communicate in Chinese and it becomes difficult at home. The government aims to change these Tibetan children to Chinese by removing Tibetan identity," the report quoted one source as saying. The report describes the system as a violation of both domestic and international law. It also claims knowledge of "numerous cases of abuse and negligence." One parent cited "poor" food quality, while a former student now living in exile said students were beaten if their dormitories were found to be not clean enough during inspections. Gyal Lo, an activist and educational sociologist with the Tibet Action Institute, said in the press release accompanying the report: "China's colonial boarding schools are meant to indoctrinate, not educate Tibetan children. Chinese authorities are deliberately taking our children away and disconnecting them from their roots. "Within a generation our language and culture could be lost, all because the Chinese government sees Tibetan identity as a threat to its control of our nation." Guo Jiakun, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, said on April 1 during a regular press conference: "We reject groundless vilification of Xizang's human rights, and religious and cultural cause, and oppose foreign officials' interference and sabotage in the name of performing their duties in Xizang." The Tibet Action Institute called on the United Nations and foreign governments to demand China "immediately conduct a public investigation into the alleged abuses, deaths, and mental health concerns at Tibetan boarding schools, to abolish the coercive system of boarding schools and preschools, and to enable Tibetan children to access high-quality mother tongue education while living at home." Related Articles American Drone Company Claims Major Breakthrough Over Chinese CompetitorsParaglider Flies into 'Death Zone,' Miraculously SurvivesFootage Shows China and Ally Flexing Military MusclesChina Reacts to Trump Tariffs Bombshell 2025 NEWSWEEK DIGITAL LLC.
Newsweek
4 days ago
- Politics
- Newsweek
China's 'Colonial' Schools Erasing Tibet Culture: Rights Group
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. The Chinese government is reportedly seeking to tighten its control over Tibet by targeting its youngest residents. At "colonial boarding schools across the regions, students are increasingly denied access to their native language and culture—with many subjected to neglect and physical abuse," according to a report released Thursday by the U.S.-based advocacy group Tibet Action Institute. Why It Matters The People's Republic of China seized control of Tibet—which it refers to as Xizang—in 1950, claiming the region needed to be "liberated" from its theocratic and feudal system. Major uprisings followed in 1959, the late 1980s, and again in 2008, each prompting violent crackdowns by Chinese forces. Critics say Tibet—birthplace of the Dalai Lama—has effectively become a police state, with international observers largely shut out except during tightly managed government tours. Newsweek reached out to the Chinese Foreign Ministry and the United Nations Human Rights Office with emailed requests for comment. What To Know Observers say the crackdown has only intensified since Chinese President Xi Jinping came to power in late 2012. This tightening of control has extended beyond public spaces into the classroom. Tibet's education system is now predominantly residential, with as many as 900,000 children between the ages of 6 and 18 estimated to be enrolled in state-run boarding schools, the group estimates. At least 100,000 children as young as 4 have been placed in boarding preschool. Students pass a poster showing Chinese President Xi Jinping at Nagqu High School in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, on June 1, 2021. Students pass a poster showing Chinese President Xi Jinping at Nagqu High School in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, on June 1, most vulnerable of Tibetans are being subjected to an intense state-directed Sinicization campaign "in order to cement the transformation of Tibetan children's identity and allegiance," according to a new report by the U.S.-based Tibet Action Institute, which based its findings on interviews with Tibetans who escaped to India, and secret communications with individuals still living in the region. While separated from their families, students receive an education delivered exclusively in Chinese and focused on Chinese history, cultural heritage and national identity. "But when these children return home, they cannot speak in Tibetan with their family members. They only communicate in Chinese and it becomes difficult at home. The government aims to change these Tibetan children to Chinese by removing Tibetan identity," the report quoted one source as saying. The report describes the system as a violation of both domestic and international law. It also claims knowledge of "numerous cases of abuse and negligence." One parent cited "poor" food quality, while a former student now living in exile said students were beaten if their dormitories were found to be not clean enough during inspections. What People Have Said Gyal Lo, an activist and educational sociologist with the Tibet Action Institute, said in the press release accompanying the report: "China's colonial boarding schools are meant to indoctrinate, not educate Tibetan children. Chinese authorities are deliberately taking our children away and disconnecting them from their roots. "Within a generation our language and culture could be lost, all because the Chinese government sees Tibetan identity as a threat to its control of our nation." Guo Jiakun, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, said on April 1 during a regular press conference: "We reject groundless vilification of Xizang's human rights, and religious and cultural cause, and oppose foreign officials' interference and sabotage in the name of performing their duties in Xizang." What's Next The Tibet Action Institute called on the United Nations and foreign governments to demand China "immediately conduct a public investigation into the alleged abuses, deaths, and mental health concerns at Tibetan boarding schools, to abolish the coercive system of boarding schools and preschools, and to enable Tibetan children to access high-quality mother tongue education while living at home."
Canada Standard
4 days ago
- Politics
- Canada Standard
Sikyong Penpa Tsering urges Tibetan unity during North America tour amid ongoing China-Tibet tensions
Dharamshala (Himachal Pradesh) [India] May 29 (ANI): Sikyong Penpa Tsering, leader of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), made his second official trip to Vancouver Island, Canada, on May 26. During this visit, he spoke to the local Tibetan community at an event hosted by the Tibetan Cultural Society of Vancouver Island, as reported by the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA). Sikyong recognised that the struggles undertaken by the first generation established a pathway for future advancement, granting younger generations better access to education, healthcare, and opportunities while maintaining their cultural heritage. He emphasised the increasing significance of population digitalisation as an essential tool in governance, particularly for communities in exile or those that are underrepresented. He pointed out how digitising population data facilitates accurate demographic assessments, improves public service delivery, and leads to better-informed decision-making, according to the CTA report. Sikyong Penpa Tsering also emphasised the relevance of the Middle Way Approach, a visionary plan introduced by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, which aims for a peaceful and mutually beneficial resolution to the Tibet issue within the framework of the People's Republic of China. His Holiness has long highlighted the long-term and reciprocal benefits of this strategy for not only Tibetans but for Chinese society as well. Instead of pursuing independence, the Middle Way advocates for genuine autonomy for Tibetans, allowing them to protect their language, religion, culture, and environment, as noted by the CTA report. He further stated that a nation embodies a collective political identity; however, it is crucial to acknowledge and safeguard Tibetan identity within this context. This recognition is particularly vital for the three traditional regions of Tibet--U-Tsang, Amdo, and Kham, which together constitute the cultural and historical essence of the Tibetan nation. The Middle Way Approach ensures the rights and dignity of all Tibetans from these regions are maintained while fostering harmony and coexistence with the Chinese populace, the CTA report highlighted. Sikyong Penpa Tsering also discussed promoting Tibetan identity through Buddhism and compassion. He contemplated the global acknowledgement of Tibetans, attributing much of it to Tibetan Buddhism, which has acted as an essential cultural and spiritual link between Tibet and the international community, according to the CTA report. Sikyong ended his remarks by urging the Tibetan community to adhere to these principles to secure a promising future for Tibet and its people. During his trip, Sikyong Penpa Tsering engaged with significant US government representatives in Washington DC, and visited nine locations across North America, including various cities in the US and Canada. He delivered speeches and interacted with Tibetan communities and youth in these regions, as reported by the CTA. As per the CTA report, the North American tour wrapped up on May 27, with his departure from Vancouver Island to Japan. Throughout his official visit and engagements, Sikyong Penpa Tsering met with key US government officials in Washington, DC, and conducted visits to nine locations across North America, involving cities in both the US and Canada. He gave speeches and engaged with Tibetan communities and youth in these areas. The North American tour concluded on May 27, as he left Vancouver Island to begin his subsequent official visit in Japan. (ANI)
