Washington, May 13 (IANS) China’s boarding-school system in Tibet is seen as a calculated effort towards cultural erasure and ideological control. Through imposition of the Mandarin language, indoctrination with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) thought, and separation of children from their families, Beijing is trying to shape a generation of Tibetans who may no longer think, speak, or identify as Tibetans, a report mentioned.

Writing for the US-based ‘Journal of Democracy’, Khedroob Thondup, the nephew of the Dalai Lama, said that in today’s Tibet, the CCP is “waging a war not only against territory and religion but against memory itself”, with classrooms serving as the main battleground. He said that the tools employed include language policies, boarding schools, and ideological indoctrination, while the targets are children — “the most vulnerable carriers of culture.”

“The CCP has placed more than one million Tibetan children in state-run boarding schools across the plateau. They are separated from their families, stripped of their language, and immersed in Mandarin-only education. They are taught to glorify Mao Zedong, to sing hymns to the People’s Liberation Army, and to view the CCP as the benevolent architect of their future. What is happening is not education — it is subjugation,” Thondup stated.

“This campaign is deliberate, systematic, and devastating. It seeks to sever Tibetans from their heritage, to erase the transmission of Buddhist philosophy and Tibetan identity, and to engineer a generation that thinks, speaks, and dreams in Mandarin, loyal to Beijing rather than to Lhasa,” he added.

According to the report, the boarding-school system forms the centrepiece of Beijing’s strategy. It added that even children as young as four are taken from their homes and enrolled in institutions where Tibetan language and culture are marginalised. Tibetan, if taught at all, is treated as a “secondary” subject, while Mandarin serves as the dominant medium of instruction.

“The separation from family is not incidental — it is essential. By removing children from the daily rhythms of Tibetan life, Beijing weakens the bonds of community and interrupts the transmission of culture. Parents report that their children return home unable to speak fluently in Tibetan, embarrassed by their traditions, and alienated from Buddhist practice,” it noted.

Asserting that such a move represents a long-term strategy, the report said it is not about pacifying Tibet today but about securing Tibet tomorrow. By erasing Tibetan identity in the classroom, Beijing is seeking to eliminate the possibility of future resistance.

“The human cost of this campaign is immense. Children suffer psychological trauma from separation. Reports describe beatings for wearing Buddhist blessing cords, punishment for praying, and humiliation for speaking Tibetan. Families are fragmented. Communities are weakened. Generations risk growing up without fluency in the Tibetan language or connection to Buddhist traditions. The result is not only cultural loss — it is spiritual devastation,” the report mentioned.

–IANS

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