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Chinese authorities on Wednesday transferred the remaining students from a closed Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Sichuan province to state-run boarding schools, two Tibetans with knowledge of the situation said.
In early July, Radio Free Asia reported that authorities closed the Buddhist school at Lhamo Kirti Monastery in Dzoge County, known among locals as Taktsang Lhamo Kirti Monastery, affecting nearly 600 students. They also demanded that parents enroll their children in state-run boarding schools.
Chinese authorities transferred about 300 students to public boarding schools in September, said the sources, who declined to be named so they could speak on a sensitive issue.
And on Wednesday, the remaining approximately 200 students, aged 15 to 18, were forcibly admitted to similar state-run institutions, leaving the monastery school completely unoccupied, they said.
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The move is part of the Chinese government’s efforts to control Tibetan Buddhist education and assimilate Tibetan youth, activists say.
Tibetans have opposed the transfer, saying the new facilities are “colonial-style” boarding schools where children are separated from their families and taught a Chinese-language curriculum that promotes loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party.
Authorities previously summoned the students’ parents for patriotic re-education sessions and made them sign agreements not to enroll their children in monastic schools before the legal age of 18, the sources said.
Established in 1986, the Lhamo Kirti Monastery School initially provided basic education to young monks before their advanced studies in Buddhist philosophy.
After being temporarily closed in 2003, the school reopened as Taktsang Lhamo Kirti Monastic School, focusing on the education of novices.
Authorities also closed another school in Kirti Monastery in Ngaba County, Sichuan province, affecting 1,000 students, RFA reported in July.
Translated by Dawa Dolma and Tenzin Dickyi for RFA Tibetan. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Joshua Lipes.