Approximately one million Tibetan children, as young as 4 years old, are forced into Chinese government-run boarding schools, separated from their families, deprived of their language, and taught only in Chinese. Parents are coerced through threats and a lack of alternatives. Imagine your own child, grandchild, or niece at such a school, where their identity is intentionally erased.
“Teachers, education researchers and local legislators in China have written reports describing Tibetan children as suffering from being separated from their families and from being largely confined within their schools.”
– How China is Erasing Tibetan Culture, One Child at a Time
The New York Times, January 9, 2025
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In September, a shocking video from Tibet showed 3 teenage boys crying on the side of the road following their escape from one of China’s colonial boarding schools. In it, they say the school is like a “prison” where they endured an “unbearable” life of beatings and abuse. Another video posted online around the same time showed a young boy desperately resisting being violently forced into a car by two unidentified men.
These children are actually monks from Muge Monastery in Ngaba. In June, Chinese authorities forced all 140 students to leave the monastery school and coerced their parents to them in nearby state-run boarding schools.
This disturbing footage is undeniable evidence of the serious abuse and mistreatment of Tibetan children in China’s colonial boarding school system in Tibet.
TAKE ACTION: Demand the Chinese government to confirm the whereabouts and safety of these children and all students from Muge Monastery
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“We applaud the 21 UN Member States who spoke out for Tibet, and especially Austria, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands and the United States for recommending China abolish the coercive colonial boarding school system intended to forcibly assimilate Tibetan children. China thinks it can get away with atrocity crimes, including holding one million Tibetan children in a coercive residential school system designed to stamp out their identity, but today’s UN review shows governments are willing to hold Beijing accountable.”
– Lhadon Tethong,
Tibet Action Director
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– Antony J. Blinken
U.S. Secretary of State
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Dr. Gyal Lo, a Tibetan educationist who defected from China last year, has personally visited more than 50 such schools and estimates at least 100,000 Tibetan children living in these institutions. “It is outright cruelty to separate children from their parents, especially at this extremely young age,” Dr. Gyal Lo stated. “Not only is China tearing families apart, they are forcing these vulnerable children to become strangers to their own Tibetan culture, severing their spiritual, linguistic and cultural ties to their homes and communities. This is why I’m speaking out today. I appeal to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to help protect Tibet’s children by openly and publicly demanding the Chinese government close these boarding preschools while she is in China.”
Read full press release here: https://tibetaction.net/eyewitness-confirms-mandatory-boarding-preschools-operating-across-tibet/
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Lhadon Tethong’s full testimony during Second U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China hearing.
Sophie Richardson testifies during the Canadian Parliament hearing on Colonial Boarding Schools in Tibet.
Lhadon Tethong, Dr. Gyal Lo and Chemi Lhamo shared testimonies during Canadian House of Commons
BBC Coverage on China’s Colonial Boarding School in Tibet
How China forces parents to send their children to colonial boarding schools in Tibet
How similar are colonial boarding schools to residential school systems in Canada and the United States?
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