Dharamshala: This morning (November 4th) 1,400 Tibetans protested in Dharamshala to demonstrate their outrage over the recent educational reforms laid out by the Chinese government in Tibet.
The event was organized by the Tibetan Youth Congress and included many students from TCV as well almost 240 students from Sara College. They mass demonstration marched from the main temple in McLeod Ganj to Lower Dharamshala, to highlight the Tibetans in exile's solidarity with the recent protests by students in Tibet. They shouted slogans such as "Return out language to its rightful owner" and "protect Tibetan language."
"Today, the Tibetan Youth Congress will initiate a "nationwide" peaceful demonstration consisting of all the Tibetan schools in India. All our Regional Tibetan Youth Congress chapters have been contacted to carry out similar protests in their respective areas so that Tibetan students all over India on this day will hold simultaneous protests," The Tibetan Youth Congress stated in a recent Press Release concerning today's demonstration.
The protest was sparked by reported comments from the Chinese Communist Party's Qinghai chief, Qiang Wei, calling for the use of "a common language" in schools and suggesting that the introduction of Mandarin as the teaching language over the next decade.
A move that recent outgoing Executive Director of Students for a Free Tibet, Lhadon Tethong warned that "If Tibetans inside Tibet have to study in Chinese, spending all day listening, learning and speaking in Chinese, they are in danger of losing our language and losing our culture. Ultimately with this will go our nation."
