The Silent Struggle: How China is systematically erasing Tibet’s identity (IANS Analysis)

New Delhi, Feb 12 (IANS) China’s coercive and violently assimilationist policies towards its religious and racial minorities are not unknown. Despite the regular condemnation that it receives from the international community and civil society regarding its egregious violations of human rights, China disregards all opposition and persists unabated on its path.

A glaring example of this is the unmitigated political, physical, cultural, and spiritual violence that the CCP metes out to the Tibetans. The Tibetans, many of them exiled from their native homeland, continue to struggle for autonomy as well as the freedom to live with dignity and practice their unique cultural traditions, and represent one of the most powerful forces against Chinese hegemonic aggression today.

After invading the Tibetan plateau in 1949, the CCP enacted complete annexation of the region in 1951, which till date is referred to by the Chinese government as ‘peaceful liberation from feudal serfdom’.

Thereafter, the subsequent decade was characterized by mass protests and uprisings by Tibetans, which were brutally suppressed by the Chinese regime, forcing the Dalai Lama, the highest spiritual leader and head of Tibetan Buddhism, to flee Tibet in 1949 and seek asylum in neighboring India.

The Dalai Lama’s flight was followed by more than 80,000 Tibetans over the years, thereby constituting a significant population of Tibetans who are forced to live outside of Tibet.

The ones who live inside are subjected by the Chinese government to a host of policies aimed at erasing their culture, severing the next generation from the consciousness of a distinct Tibetan identity, and demographic engineering in order to marginalize the Tibetans further.

Often termed as ‘cultural genocide’ and ‘Sinicization’, these policies range from banning the Tibetan language in favour of Mandarin in schools and public institutions, to official interference in the religious practises of the Tibetans such as the determination of reincarnations of major spiritual leaders.

For the Tibetans, their form of Buddhism, i.e., Tibetan Buddhism, plays a profound and fundamental role in structuring the social, political, cultural, philosophical, and spiritual mores of their society.

So intertwined have the political and the religious been for the Tibetans that their highest spiritual leader also serves as the highest seat of political power.

The 14th Dalai Lama, or Tenzin Gyatso, due to his persistent struggle for Tibetan rights to meaningful autonomy as well as his global campaign for peace, human rights, and universal responsibility, is a world-revered figure who was also awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1989.

For the Chinese government which already perceives him as a threat due to his tremendous influence over Tibetans, his exceptionally charismatic, resilient, and globally hailed characteristics make him even more potent.

Therefore, it comes as no surprise that the CCP consistently engages in malicious propaganda against the venerated leader, from labelling him an erstwhile slave-owning theocrat to even a paedophile.

In fact, as early as 1996, the CCP forbade the possession and display of the Dalai Lama’s images in Tibet, construing it as solidarity with Tibetan secessionism.

Forcing Tibetans not to stick pictures of their spiritual leader on their walls and instead, put portraits of Mao Zedong and Xi Jinping, obviously constitutes a grotesque abuse of power and subjugation of a people.

Such is the CCP’s urge for totalitarian control that the party, which under Mao was expressly averse to religion, has now taken an interest in deciding who should succeed the Dalai Lama.

The party has repeatedly asserted that it reserves the right to decide on the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation through the ‘golden urn’ process, and to preside over it, it has convened a committee comprising government-selected Tibetan monks and CPC officials, triggering concerns of a possible split within Tibetan Buddhism.

It should be remembered here that the six-year-old Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, who was named by the Dalai Lama as the reincarnated Panchen Lama in 1995, was arrested soon after, never to be found again, while the CCP nominated his replacement.

Furthermore, the Chinese government has also pursued the systematic destruction or downsizing of Tibetan Buddhist monasteries as well as village and private Tibetan schools.

For instance, over a period of a year till September 2017, Chinese authorities demolished significant parts of the Sichuan-based Larung Gar Buddhist Academy, one of the largest Tibetan Buddhist study centres in the world, citing a risk of disaster. About 4,725 homes were crushed and 5,000 residents were evicted from what was once inhabited by between 10,000 to 40,000 monks, nuns, and students.

To add insult to injury, the evicted residents were forcefully subjected to a ‘re-education’ program, which essentially means indoctrination into the CCP’s ideology.

Similarly, the government has routinely ordered the closing down of private Tibetan schools, such as the 2024 case of Gangjong Sherig Norling School, and the 2021 case of Gaden Rabten Namgyaling School, so that the next generation of Tibetan children are not exposed to their language, religious/spiritual practises, values, and ways of being.

To supplement the destruction of Tibetan educational institutions, the Chinese government forces Tibetan children to attend residential schools, uprooting them from their homes, wherein they are injected with Mandarin-based education as well as Chinese majoritarian ideology. Chinese President Xi Jinping, on a visit to one such school in 2024, declared that education must “implant a shared consciousness of Chinese nationhood in the souls of children from an early age”.

Additionally, reports have also revealed how these Tibetan children suffer from distressing loneliness, depression, and other psychological harm in the boarding schools.

As per estimates by the Tibetan government-in-exile, there have been over 150 cases of self-immolation by Tibetans since 2009.

Despite relentless Chinese aggression and extremely invasive and advanced surveillance, the resistance of the Tibetans persists. As the 112th Tibetan Independence Day approaches on February 13th, it is imperative that the Tibetan struggle, which has gone on for over three quarters of a century, is honoured and amplified.

The international community must focus and intensify its efforts towards the liberation of the Tibetan people, as they have stood up as a pillar of strength, resilience, and pride, and taught the world to not bend even in the face of back-breaking oppression.

–IANS

scor/