With the start of winter school break in Tibet, Chinese authorities have implemented new restrictions on Tibetan children, banning private Tibetan-language lessons and requiring ones that focus on Mandarin skills and Chinese political topics, two sources with knowledge of the situation said. In some areas, they are even forbidding children from wearing religious symbols or participating in religious activities, since the winter break began on Dec. 30, said the sources who requested anonymity for safety reasons.
The restrictions are the latest moves that appear to be part of Beijing’s wider goal to suppress and even erase the Tibetan language and culture and subsume everything under Han Chinese culture and the Mandarin language.During the two-month-long winter break, Tibetan students in the capital Lhasa and across Tibet are prohibited from receiving tutorials outside of school-planned assignments or taking private lessons in the Tibetan language, they said.
