LHASA (Tibet): The Chinese government has closed Gangjong Sherig Norbu Lobling, also known as Jigme Gyaltsen Nationalities Vocational School, a renowned Tibetan private school with a three-decade history located in Golok Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture.

According to a Tibetan human rights activist, the forced closure of this famous school is a sign of the Chinese government’s intensifying systematic campaign to assimilate Tibetan cultural identity into the dominant Han Chinese majority.

On July 12, four days after the school held its 27th graduation ceremony, founder and principal Jigme Gyaltsen announced the closure of the school following government directives. Within two days of the announcement, a hasty closing ceremony was held with numerous government officials present to observe the closure.

On July 14, photos and videos of students and teachers bursting into tears and looking sad surfaced on social media.

The executive director of the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Dharamshala, Tenzin Dawa, said: “We have received an update… that a very reputable 30-year-old private Tibetan school has been forced to close by the Chinese authorities in Tibet… because the school is run by Tibetans and for Tibetans.”

Dawa added that it was an all-boys school, with students from both Leh and the monastic community. “This school has done a lot to protect and preserve Tibetan language and culture. When we heard the news of the school closing, Tibetans were devastated,” he said.

Dawa said that China should implement the provisions of the Constitution and regional legislation for the ethnic minority population.

“It (the closure) was done deliberately by the Chinese authorities with a larger goal of assimilation and closing any possibility for Tibetans in Tibet to practice and preserve their own language and culture. We would like to call on China to implement what their constitution and regional law prescribes for the people of ethnic minorities and remind them that they are part of the international community and they have a great obligation in terms of the international treaties that they have signed, so they have the right and the duty to respect that,” he said.

Dawa added: “Anything that violates the rights of Tibetans inside Tibet will not be forgotten by Tibetans outside Tibet and we will continue to focus our attention on Tibetans inside Tibet and we will ensure that these violations are spread to the international community.”
According to Tempa Gyaltsen, deputy director of the Tibet Policy Institute in Dharamshala, the closure of the schools is aimed at marginalizing Tibetans.

“The Chinese government has ordered the closure of a very prominent educational institution… we believe that (reasons) for the closure of this institution are to marginalize Tibetans and harm Tibetan culture, because Tibetan culture is the core of Tibetan identity. It will have a huge impact on Tibetans, because there is already a very small option for Tibetans to study Tibetan language and culture. With this closure, there are no or very few institutions that specifically focus on Tibetan language,” Gyaltsen said.

Gyaltsen said the Chinese government has set up a boarding school system and wants to Chineseize every community under their occupation, especially the Tibetans.

“This is a clear message that they want to turn every Tibetan into a Chinese. The Tibet Policy Institute wants to make it clear to the Beijing leadership that this is a big mistake, because Tibetan culture and language is one of the richest cultures in existence and has a historical heritage that can contribute immensely not only to Tibetans but also to the progress of China.”

The announcement of the school closures came a month after President Xi Jinping’s visit to Siling (Ch: Xining) in June, where he visited the government-run Golok Ethnic Middle School and the Tsongkha Tsechen Dargyeling Monastery. (ANI)