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The Chinese government has shut down Gangjong Sherig Norbu Lobling, also known as Jigme Gyaltsen Nationalities Vocational School, a reputed Tibetan private school with a history spanning three decades located in Golok Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture.
A Tibetan human rights activist told ANI that the forced closure of this renowned school signals the intensification of the Chinese government's 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, its founder and principal, Jigme Gyaltsen, announced the school's closure following government directives. Within two days of the announcement, a hurried closing ceremony was held, with numerous government officials present to observe the closure. On July 14, images and videos on social media showed students and teachers shedding tears and looking distressed. Executive director of the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Dharamshala, Tenzin Dawa, said, "We have received an update... that a highly reputed 30-year-old Tibetan private educational school has been forced to shut down by Chinese authorities inside Tibet... due to the school being run by the Tibetans and for the Tibetans." Dawa added that it was an all-boys school, that had students from both Leh and the monastic community. "This school had contributed a lot in terms of the protection and preservation of the Tibetan language and culture. When we heard the news regarding the closure of the school, Tibetan people were devastated," he said. Dawa said China must implement what their Constitution and regional law provide for the people of ethnic minorities. "It [the closure] was deliberately done by the Chinese authorities with a larger goal to assimilate and close every avenue for Tibetans inside Tibet to practice and preserve their own language and culture. We want to call upon China to implement what their Constitution and regional law provide for the people of ethnic minorities and remind them that they are part of the international community and they have a big obligation in terms of the international treaties that they have signed so they have a right and obligation to respect that," he said. Dawa added, "Anything that violates the rights of the Tibetans inside Tibet will not be forgotten by the Tibetans outside and that we will continue to focus our attention on the Tibetans inside and we will advocate and make sure that these violations are disseminated in the international community." Deputy director of the Tibet Policy Institute in Dharamshala, Tempa Gyaltsen, said that the school closure is to marginalise the Tibetans. "The Chinese government has ordered to close a very prominent educational institute...we believe [reasons] for the closure of this institute is to marginalise Tibetans and to harm the Tibetan culture because Tibetan culture is the core of the Tibetan identity. It will have an immense impact of Tibetans because there is already a very little option for the Tibetans to study Tibetan language and culture. With this closure, there are no or very few institutions that are specifically focused on Tibetan language," Gyaltsen said. Gyaltsen said that the Chinese government has launched a boarding school system and thus wants to turn every community under their occupation, particularly Tibetans, into Chinese. "This is a clear message that they want to turn every Tibetan into Chinese. The Tibet Policy Institute wants to convey to the leadership in Beijing that this is a great mistake because Tibet culture and language is one of the richest cultures to exist and it has a historical heritage that can contribute immensely not only for Tibetans but also for the progress of China." The school closure announcement came one month after President Xi Jinping's June visit to Siling (Ch: Xining), where he visited the government-run Golok Ethnic Middle School and the Tsongkha Tsechen Dargyeling monastery. (ANI)
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