This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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More than 3,300 people have been evacuated as a wildfire spreads through a Tibetan-populated county in China’s Sichuan province, Chinese state media and three people with knowledge of the situation said Monday.
The fire, which began on the evening of March 15 on the slopes of a mountain near Petse village, forced Tibetans from about a dozen villages in three areas of Nyagchu county, or Yajiang in Chinese, to leave their homes.
The county lies in Kardze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in the traditional Kham region of eastern Tibet. Tibetans made up the majority of the county’s total population of over 51,000, according to 2020 census data.
The cause of the fire, which quickly spread to multiple mountain ridges due to strong winds on March 16, is still unknown, sources told Radio Free Asia.
One of three main sections of the fire has been extinguished, China Daily reported Monday.
But more than 11 Tibetan villages at the foot of the mountains are still in danger as the wildfire continues to spread rapidly across the area covered mostly by pine trees, while residents are being evacuated, said the first source from inside Tibet.
Although the fire burned down several houses in nearby communities and harmed animals on the mountains, no human casualties have been reported, said two sources inside the country and a third from the exile community with knowledge of the situation.
Firefighters arrived at the scene on Sunday, said the first source from inside Tibet. That same day, the Ministry of Emergency Management declared a Level-4 emergency response.
Firefighters dispatched
Chinese state media reported that more than 1,200 firefighters and eight helicopters had been dispatched to fight the fire, with a reinforcement of 750 more firefighters expected from neighboring Yunnan province, according to Chinese media.
The Jamyang Choekhorling Monastery, founded by popular Tibetan religious leader and activist Tulku Tenzin Delek Rinpoche, as well as the Pamo Monastery near Paomo Mountain, are located close to an area where the fire is spreading rapidly, the sources said.
The fire also has burned to the ground about 30 houses in the nearby villages, said the second source from inside Tibet.
“The fire is spreading very fast because of the direction of the wind,” he told RFA. “If we put it out in one area, it starts in another.”
Firefighters, local Chinese authorities and Tibetan residents are all working to stem the spread of the fire and to ensure minimum damage to homes, monasteries and animals, he added.
Chinese authorities have warned Tibetans not to share photos or videos of the fire on social media platforms or with contacts abroad, or face arrest, said the first source from inside Tibet.
State media reported that authorities temporarily closed a highway passing through the region and that communication with a hydroelectric station has been interrupted.
Written by Tenzin Pema for RFA Tibetan. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Pelbar and Lhuboom for RFA Tibetan.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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China has banned the teaching and use of the Tibetan language at elementary and middle schools in two Tibetan-populated regions in southwestern China, sources inside the country said, requiring all instruction to be in Mandarin.
The move could lead to the extinction of the language in the regions – and could endanger its viability across the country, Tibetan activists fear.
The Chinese government ordered the ban in government-run schools in Kardze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture and Ngaba Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan Province, starting with the fall semester that began in September, a Tibetan source said.
Middle school students currently enrolled can finish the next two years of studies in Tibetan, but starting in 2025, all classes will be held in Mandarin, the person said.
Previously, state-run schools in the region taught Tibetan language classes to students, and subjects including mathematics, science, physics, geography, history and social studies were conducted in Tibetan. Mandarin was also taught as a language course.
But now, the Chinese government has expedited the teaching of all school subjects in Mandarin in schools in the 12 counties comprising Ngaba Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in what it said was an effort to raise education standards, teachers and parents of students said.
‘Soft atrocity’
The ban is part of Beijing’s wider “Sinicization” program that has also restricted the language and culture of Uyghurs and other minorities in China – despite protections in China’s Constitution that permit minority groups to use their own language in their own regions.
Another Tibetan source called the step a “soft atrocity.”
“On the pretext of the government’s program, China is trying to completely wipe out the Tibetan language,” said the person who, like others in this report, declined to be identified out of concern for their safety.
“China’s use of soft atrocities, instead of forcible measures, is leading to the complete annihilation of Tibetan society and education, with no scope for revival,” the source said.
Radio Free Asia could not reach the education departments of Ngaba and Kardze for comment.
Reversal
Tibetan is widely spoken not just in the Tibetan Autonomous Region in the far western part of China, but also in neighboring parts of the country with large Tibetan populations. For example, about 90 percent of Karze prefecture’s 1 million inhabitants are Tibetan.
The ban reverses previous moves to promote the Tibetan language in the region.
Under the Karze Area Tibetan Language Regulation adopted in 2015, special emphasis was put on the formation of a Tibetan language task force in the Tibet Autonomous Region, with the promotion of Tibetan-language teaching in schools considered important.
The news came as a surprise to many.
Teachers and parents were not officially informed about this major change in policy, but simply told verbally to implement it at the start of a new academic year, the sources said.
After banning Tibetan instruction at the Chak-sam-kha Middle School, Tibetan language teachers were told to move to other areas where the government allows Tibetan to be used as the medium of instruction, the sources said.
School administrators did not inform students’ parents about the change in the language of instruction from Tibetan to Mandarin in various subjects, and they held a meeting with teachers who were suddenly instructed to teach their subjects in Mandarin, the sources said.
Middle schools in Zoege county, also part of the Tibetan traditional region of Amdo, are widely known for their high standard of Tibetan-language teaching but had to switch to Mandarin as the main language of instruction this year, said a Tibetan source from inside Tibet.
All teachers at Zoege country middle schools have to implement the measure, the source said.
Resentment by the public and educators over a plan in 2020 to change the language of instruction to Mandarin from Tibetan in elementary and middle schools in Ngaba Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture boiled over into a large protest, and the plan was put on hold.
Translated by Rigdhen Dolma for RFA Tibetan. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Pelbar for RFA Tibetan.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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Chinese crews working on a government-ordered railway line are tunneling through a mountain sacred to Tibetan residents of Sichuan, using artillery fire to weaken the rock face and speed their work, Tibetan sources say.
The destruction of Asal Dzari mountain, located in the Toe township of Nyakchu county in the Kardze (in Chinese, Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, has now been under way for several months, according to sources in Tibet and in exile.
Tunnels being built through the mountain will help extend new rail lines connecting Nyakchu with the Tibetan regional capital Lhasa, a Tibetan living in the region told RFA, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons.
“The Chinese government has said that Asal Dzari mountain stands in the way of these two regions where they are building the railroads. Therefore, there are many tunneling projects being carried out around the mountain at the moment,” he said.
At the same time, the government is extracting valuable minerals from the mountain and harming the region’s fragile ecology, RFA’s source said. “However, it is unclear which minerals are being taken out, and local Tibetans are not allowed to go near the work sites,” he added.
Tibet has become an important source of minerals needed for China’s economic growth, and Chinese mining and infrastructure operations in Tibetan areas have led to widespread environmental damage, including the pollution of water sources for livestock and humans and the destruction of sacred sites, experts say.
Asal Dzari mountain is sacred to local Tibetans and contains many valuable mineral deposits, a Tibetan living in exile confirmed, citing sources in the area and speaking on condition of anonymity to protect his contacts.
“And the Chinese are now using artillery against the mountain to help extract its minerals, leaving local residents in immense difficulties and causing the death of some of their livestock,” he said.
Another railway now being built between Sichuan and central Tibet’s Nyingtri prefecture will boost tourism and trade along a previously unconnected southern route, but will also strengthen Beijing’s control over a disputed region bordering India, state media and other sources say.
The project is the second major railway to be built by China in Tibet after a northern line connecting Golmud in northwest China’s Qinghai province with Lhasa was completed in 2006. The line is the highest railway in the world.
Regional experts say that the Chinese rail lines, when completed, will tighten Beijing’s grip on Tibet, a formerly independent Himalayan country invade by China more than 70 years ago and governed by China’s ruling Communist Party ever since.
Translated by Tenzin Dickyi for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Written in English by Richard Finney.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Sangyal Kunchok.