Dharamshala — At a time when the Chinese government was placing millions of Tibetan children in colonial-style boarding schools with the aim of assimilating them into Chinese culture, language and ideologies. Tibetan parents feared their children would become like the Chinese, but they were forced to send them to these schools. One Tibetan father refused to send his son to the boarding school and was detained by the Chinese authorities.
According to the source, a Tibetan father from the Yurag Village (ཡུལ་རག་སྡེ་བ), Hogyal Town (ཧོ་རྒྱལ), in the Yazi County,north-eastern Tibet , was detailed by the Chinese police in Yazi County (Ch:Xunhua), on March 12, 2026. Afer refusing to send his child to the colonial style boarding school (Hogyal Middle School) in the Yazi County.
Since September 2025, the father has refused to send his child to Hogyal Secondary School in Yazi County. However, according to the source, the Chinese police have visited his home and forcibly taken the child to school on several occasions.
After the winter holiday in February and March 2026, the Tibetan children were due to return to state schools. But the father once again chose not to send his child to school, prompting the Chinese police in Yazi County to visit his home. The father told the police that the child had run away from home, but the police eventually managed to find the child and forcibly took him back to school, then placed the father in detention for 15 days, subjecting him to warnings and brainwashing sessions.
Tibetan parents are deeply concerned that their children will end up becoming like the Chinese after sending their children in the to colonial-style state boarding schools in Tibet. However, the Chinese authorities force them to send their children to state boarding schools in Tibet, where only the Chinese language and culture are taught, along with the communist ideologies of the Chinese leadership. Tibetan children are thus cut off from Tibetan religion and culture, which are based on compassion and kindness.
This is a worrying and frightening situation for many Tibetan parents, as the Chinese authorities are threatening to withdraw the aid they need if they do not send their children to school, and even to arrest them if need be. Parents therefore have no choice but to send their children to the colonial-style state boarding schools in Tibet.
Their worries became the reality in the Tibet these days; when Tibetan children returned home for the holidays after attending colonial-style state boarding schools, they spoke only Chinese amongst themselves and used very little Tibetan with their parents; they were also afraid to visit Tibetan monasteries, as their teachers and Chinese staff had warned them against doing so before the holidays.
