Friday marked the 25th International Mother Language Day, a UNESCO observance for promoting the preservation and protection of linguistic diversity. For Tibetan communities on the Tibetan plateau and in the diaspora, the issue is existential, as various structural forces continue to erode the health of their respective languages and cultures. Much of this problem stems directly from repressive government Sinicization policies, while part of it also due to downstream effects that reproduce the exclusionary dynamics of language usage.
Tibetan minority languages suffer particularly from the latter. Gerald Roche, an anthropologist who studies these languages, recently spoke with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation about the disappearing languages of Tibet. He noted that in acknowledging only a single Tibetan language, the Chinese state has used it “as a tool of domination over other minority languages,” many of which are at risk of extinction. Roche described the process of languages dying—be they state-recognized standard Tibetan or Tibetan minority languages—as the result of “an unequal hierarchical relationship of domination that forces bad choices on a particular group of people,” who then “lose a way of relating to each other and the world around them.” (CDT interviewed Roche on this topic last December.) In Global China Pulse on Monday, Dak (Lajadou) Lhagyal wrote about the difficulty of navigating different linguistic hierarchies in Tibet, as the push for linguistic purity can not only defend against the encroachment of Mandarin but also repress minority languages:
These judgements [against those who do not speak pure Tibetan] have sparked debates within Tibetan society about the need to standardise the language and establish a version of Tibetan that is mutually intelligible across its diverse, often mutually unintelligible regional varieties (Roche and Suzuki 2018). While Tibetan remains a critical aspect of cultural preservation, internal policing of linguistic norms has become more widespread, with expectations around pure Tibetan growing stronger (Thurston 2018). This policing often operates through naming and shaming those who speak Chinese or mix Tibetan with Chinese, while praising those who consistently use pure Tibetan, and is enforced both through peer pressure in daily interactions and on social media among Tibetans (Lhagyal 2021).
However, this internal policing can also create unintended consequences. Efforts to standardise Tibetan may marginalise speakers of non-standard varieties or those who regularly code-switch between Tibetan and Chinese. Roche and Suzuki (2018) caution that such movements could limit linguistic diversity within the broader Tibetan community. While the movement for language purism is driven by a genuine concern for cultural survival, it also reinforces linguistic hierarchies that may divide Tibetans rather than unite them.
The tension between preserving linguistic purity and navigating the pressures of everyday life in a Mandarin-dominated world reflects a deeper struggle within Tibetan society. As Mandarin continues to grow in influence, the desire to maintain Tibetan as a vibrant, living language persists, but this goal is complicated by the realities of cultural adaptation and the practical need to engage with Mandarin in public life. [Source]
More detrimentally, Chinese government policies have forced Mandarin education upon Tibetan children, contributing to the erasure of Tibetan languages. A dispatch from Human Rights Watch this month described how Chinese authorities have arbitrarily shuttered at least six vocational schools in Tibet since 2021 and forcibly disappeared prominent Tibetan educators. Last week, PBS and ITV released a FRONTLINE documentary titled “Battle for Tibet,” which showcases the struggle for the survival of language and culture in Tibet. One Tibetan mother interviewed says that her children who were forced to attend boarding schools “don’t speak our language. We can’t teach the kids Tibetan. They don’t listen to us.” Describing this aspect of the documentary, Sunny Nagpaul at PBS highlighted the risk of language loss and cultural erasure:
The children had “forgotten the Tibetan they knew and could no longer speak it properly,” says Gyal Lo, who lived in a Chinese province at the time, and now lives in exile in Canada. “The parents and the children couldn’t have a proper conversation with each other in Tibetan.”
The video above, drawn from the new FRONTLINE documentary Battle for Tibet, chronicles Gyal Lo’s next moves. Deciding to investigate what was happening at schools across Tibet, Gyal Lo visited over 50 kindergarten boarding schools for Tibetan children between 2017 and 2020. He says he found little teaching of Tibetan language and culture contrary to official claims.
[…] “These boarding pre-schools erase the fundamental mindset of Tibetan children from the age of four and replace it with a new Chinese mindset,” Gyal Lo says. “Over the next 15 to 20 years, if boarding schools continue, Tibetan national culture and identity will be completely destroyed.” [Source]
The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy also released a report earlier this month titled “Dissenting Voices: The State of Expression in Tibet.” One section of the report discusses the crackdown on Tibetan language and culture via digital platforms. (CDT previously covered the removal of Tibetan and other minority languages from the language-learning app Talkmate and the video-sharing platform Bilibili in 2021.)
The suppression of Tibetan language platforms is part of a broader policy to prioritize Mandarin and restrict ethnic minority languages in China. Tibetan users of popular Chinese apps like Douyin and Kuaishou frequently report discriminatory practices, such as account shutdowns or reduced visibility for content created in Tibetan.
In June 2023, Rinchen and Sonam from Kham protested these practices through video messages. They highlighted the disparity between how Tibetan cultural content is censored while harmful content from other groups often remains unrestricted. Although their campaign gained significant support within Tibetan communities, Rinchen’s account was eventually blocked, and Sonam’s video was removed. Their pleas to platforms like Kuaishou to address this discrimination went unanswered.
Douyin’s parent company, ByteDance, has drawn similar criticism for censoring Tibetan-language content. In July 2024, Tibetan netizens such as Youga Ga and several others publicly criticised the platform for banning Tibetan language usage in videos, sparking widespread concern. [Source]
