China 'colonising' 1 million Tibet kids in boarding schools: Report

NEW DELHI: A million Tibetan children and adolescents have been forcibly lodged in Chinese administration-run boarding schools in occupied Tibet, with at least 1 lakh of them being preschoolers in the 4-6 age group, according to a report released here on Friday by the Tibetan Action Institute (TAI).

The report recounts statements of parents of some of these children over how they are constantly subjected to abuse, neglect, indoctrination and "identity erasure" in a vast network of boarding schools and preschools run by the Chinese govt in Tibet.


"As the Chinese govt manoeuvres to co-opt the institution of Dalai Lama by interfering in the reincarnation process, it is simultaneously targeting Tibetan children through assimilationist policies that threaten Tibet's survival as a distinct people," a TAI statement said.

"It's student colonisation," a systematic strategy adopted by Chinese President Xi Jinping to erase the 4,700-year-old culture of Tibet, said Dr Gyal Lo, a Tibetan sociologist who was part of the fieldwork for compiling the report. Gyal Lo fled Tibet in 2020 and is now engaged with the TIA.

He estimated that there are at least one lakh preschoolers in the 4-6 age group who have been taken away from their parents from rural parts of Tibet and lodged in boarding schools run by the Chinese administration. In addition, there are around 9 lakh children and adolescents in the 6-18 age group who have been put up in boarding schools.

The report also mentions forcible transfer of monks and nuns under 18 to these schools. Gyal Lo, the report said, visited more than 50 boarding preschools in Amdo and Kham provinces of Tibet, coming up with the estimate that at least 100,000 Tibetan children are living in preschool residential institutions across Tibet at present.

"In boarding schools, the indoctrination process begins from a very young age. The children are restricted from speaking their mother tongue - Tibetan - taught in Chinese language, forced to learn and speak Chinese and taught only state-approved history," the report stated.

It further said students in these boarding schools are exposed to persistent teachings about the centrality of Chinese identity, history, and culture and the importance of Communist Party of China.