The outcome of the controversy about a possible switch from the Tibetan language to standard Chinese (Putonghua) as the sole language of instruction in schools, which drove thousands of Tibetan school children and college students to street protests in Qinghai province in October 2010, is still uncertain. The scale of the demonstrations illustrates the gravity of the language issue. Once mastered only by a few Tibetans in border regions, the Chinese language became, after the advent of the People's Republic of China's (PRC) rule in Tibet in the 1950s, the omnipresent medium of public life, and hence the key for social and professional success. Meanwhile, the Tibetan language is still seen as the keystone of Tibetan cultural identity and religion(1). This means that Tibetan youths and their parents face the necessity of having to foster Chinese as a vital instrument of integration, while maintaining the use of Tibetan to avoid further assimilation into Chinese society in general. So far, the answer to this dilemma has been bilingual education, a concept officially propagated by the authorities, but the exact definition of which is the actual subject of the controversy.

The current movement, which takes place in a stronghold of Tibetan literacy, is the climax of a long-term series of protests by Tibetan school children and students. It nevertheless cautiously avoids political grievances and pointed expressions of ethnic identity that characterised earlier school protests as recently as spring 2010. With this limited focus, the protesters appear to have circumvented a politicisation of the movement and thus far avoided provoking the authorities and compromising their language-related demands. The authorities are now faced with two options. Either they take the opportunity to finally align long-held declarations of intent about the protection and development of minority languages and culture with facts by redrawing policies more sympathetic to Tibetans, and thus contribute to correcting decades of neglect. Alternatively, they simply opt for redefining the protest as a challenge to their power by Tibetan nationalists. The latter, repressive response could, in the form of a self-fulfilling prophecy, expand to broader political demands. A premonitory debate on Tibetan writer Woeser's blog following the pro-Cantonese language protest in Guangdong province, southeast China, in summer 2010, had recognised this scenario as the most plausible.

Pupils at the Chamdo Experimental Primary School.

The Qinghai province 'Mid- to Long-Term Plan Outline for the Reform and Development of Education'(2) presented in June 2010 is aimed at "strengthening the education development plan" and is in tune with national and international efforts to provide education for all. It acknowledges the disadvantages experienced by Tibetan youth in the PRC's education system and seems concerned with eliminating them in order to "bridge the education gap between China's various ethnic groups and promote development in ethnic minority areas". The plan refers to creating "innovative conditions for minority nationality students to receive a good education", and to the need to "satisfy the masses' educational demands". However, the declared intention of "making the state's common language and script [i.e. Chinese] the language of instruction" potentially represents a significant shift in policy. Tibetan students fear the government's plan might promote Chinese language as the only valid medium for education and that the current bilingual system might be scrapped. Other critics allege an intention to flatten ethnic differences by pushing Tibetan language into marginality.

The Chinese authorities often present their concept of bilingual education as a progressive educational policy that confirms their commitment to 'protecting' minority culture and languages. Many Tibetans also view bilingual education positively, since it provides space for Tibetan language in the education system, but their acceptance is pragmatic in that they need to learn Chinese to compete in higher education and in the job market.

In its own words, the ten-year plan intends to "forcefully develop" bilingual education. It advocates the provision of bilingual teaching materials, the training of bilingual teaching staff, and even suggests that Chinese should study minority languages and scripts, "creating a social atmosphere of studying and applying 'bilingual'-ism". However, at the same time, the clear emphasis on intensifying Chinese learning for Tibetan students, as in the provision of "teaching the Chinese language in the basic education phase", raises questions about the extent that this would be detrimental to the position of Tibetan language within the current education system, and exactly what kind of 'bilingual education' policy is proposed. It appears that the concept of bilingualism is being reduced to providing Chinese language education for those for whom Chinese is a second language rather than being an education system genuinely based on two languages.

On 30 September 2010, the People's Daily reported that at a recent education conference, Qinghai's Party Secretary, Qiang Wei stated: "Qinghai province has vigorously implemented state common language [Chinese] teaching in compulsory education while extending the 'bilingual' teaching of minority languages and scripts, making people of all minority nationalities grasp and use the Chinese language and script, thereby achieving 'intercommunication between ethnics and Han' [minhan jiantong]" (3).

At the same time, referring to a Tibetan source, Radio Free Asia reported that Qiang Wei had, in a recent meeting, "ordered that the language used in textbooks should be changed to Chinese". Furthermore, provincial authorities in Qinghai had announced that Tibetan teachers were to attend workshops focussed on changing the medium of instruction from Tibetan to Chinese. If this information is reliable, then it suggests that the Tibetan language is destined to play only a symbolic role in 'bilingual' education(4).

Two weeks of protests

On 15 October, an appeal was submitted to the Qinghai provincial government, reportedly signed by around three thousand Tibetan teachers, citing Article 4 of the PRC constitution which guarantees ethnic minorities' freedom to use and develop their own spoken and written languages. A student protest was reported to have occurred in Tsolho (Chin: Hainan) TAP, Qinghai province on 18 October, although few details are known. The following day saw thousands of protesters take to the streets in Rebkong (Chin: Tongren), Malho (Chin: Huangnan) TAP, Qinghai province, in opposition to the alleged plans to remove the Tibetan language as medium of education. The official news agency Xinhua confirmed further protests in Tsojang (Chin: Haibei) and Golog (Chin: Guoluo) prefectures.

Demonstrations were reported to have been held in Qinghai every day beginning on 18, or possibly 17 October, and continuing through to 24 October, with protests by Tibetan students in Beijing held on 22 October. The protests in Qinghai province spread to Tsayi, Sangchu (Chin: Xiahe) county in neighbouring Gansu province on 26 and 27 October, where thousands of Tibetan students are reported to have demonstrated.

Despite the highly political nature of the issues surrounding minority languages throughout the world, Tibetan students have attempted to distance their calls for the use of Tibetan language in schools from the more political demands and expressions of ethnic identity that have characterised political unrest around education generally and that have taken place as recently as spring 2010. These October protests were very orderly; photographs have shown groups of marching youths, some as young as ten years of age, wearing school uniforms and appearing almost as if on a school outing. At different locations, protesting school children and students have been surrounded or closely monitored by police, including armed police, and in some cases protesters were blocked from proceeding. No clashes of any kind have been reported. However, police and plainclothes security officials were seen on guard outside minority middle schools and high schools in Rebkong for up to at least one week after the protests in that town(5).

Meanwhile, Chinese officials have responded by certifying that new language policies were not aimed at wiping out the Tibetan language(6). Xinhua quoted the director of Qinghai province education department, Wang Yubo, as saying that changes will not be forced in areas where "conditions are not ripe", a weak reassurance as it seems to imply that, although reforms will be applied progressively and with due consideration for local sensitivities, ultimately, the reform project is planned to be applied throughout the province.

Ups and downs of Tibetan language education

Early attempts at bilingual education in Tibetan areas ceased during the Cultural Revolution, when the sole validity of Chinese language was openly propagated. The 1980s saw a revival when Tibetan language primary schools were re-established. In particular, the late tenth Panchen Lama was a dedicated and successful champion of the Tibetan language in the public arena, particularly in schools. But following his death in 1989, the political unrest of the late 1980s and the imposition of martial law in Lhasa, expressions of Tibetan cultural identity, due to their close association with Tibetan Buddhism and nationalism, met once again with the authorities' distrust, generating a backlash against Tibetan language education.

China's education for all policy, in the form of nine-year compulsory education, was launched in 1986 and progressively implemented in the following years. China claims to provide bilingual education for minorities, including Tibetans. However, since entrance exams for secondary education are conducted in Chinese, students who have not acquired solid Chinese proficiency in primary school are severely disadvantaged. The same issue arises again in accessing higher education and employment. In 2006, this resulted in protests by graduates in Lhasa who believed they had been discriminated against while competing with Chinese graduates for TAR civil service jobs. A similar protest arose in September 2010 in connection with Tibetan medicine students. Tibetan language as a medium of instruction in secondary schools in the TAR was abandoned in 1996. In the neidi schools, secondary boarding schools for Tibetan children but located in Mainland China, Tibetan language is normally taught as a subject but Chinese language is generally the medium of education.

Genuine efforts by the Chinese government to provide education for all in Tibet are often met with suspicion and scepticism by rights campaigners and educational specialists, not least due to the history of China's minority education system being used to 'uplift', which in the standard view of the PRC authorities means to sinicise, minority groups. Bilingual education policies and the rhetoric of cultural preservation are regularly employed to counter such criticism. For example, in response to the wave of protests that spread across the Tibetan plateau in spring 2008 and international condemnation of the ensuing crackdown, the Chinese media attempted to discredit all criticism, in particular the Dalai Lama's claims of China's 'cultural genocide', by publishing news stories in English praising cultural preservation and access to education in the Tibetan language. Other news stories in English for a foreign audience have included claims that Tibetan is the dominant language in government employment in the TAR, and the 'development' of the Tibetan language through the creation of an electronic Tibetan translating machine, but the accuracy and relevance of these claims is at least questionable.

English language Tibet-related news stories published on Xinhuanet after the events of spring 2008 often focussed on language and suggested that Tibetan played a key role in 'bilingual education'.

Rampant student protests

Some international observers expressed surprise at the involvement of school children in protests and suggested that this might be a new development linked to expectations that the state might not overreact to them in the way it normally does with other Tibetan protests(7). There is, however, nothing new about Tibetan school pupils protesting; in fact, protests over education issues staged by school students have been reported at least since the 1980s and past incidents left no records of leniency. Recent occurrences included:

• In summer 2007, apparently as part of a campaign to promote political correctness in the run up to the Olympics, Tibetan school students in various locations in Sichuan were instructed to write essays denouncing the Dalai Lama(8), which generated instances of protests. Political discontent expressed by Tibetan school students was also reported from Bora, Sangchu (Chin: Xiahe) county in Gansu province, where children were questioned after the words 'Free Tibet" were found written on a school wall.
• In September 2007, five schoolboys were reportedly detained and beaten, also in Bora, after graffiti was found on walls of a school and police station, calling for Tibetan freedom and the return of the Dalai Lama. According to one report, some of the youths were assaulted with electric cattle prods, they reportedly had to undertake hard labour while in detention and one was hospitalised with possible head injuries.
• Tibetan school children and students played a prominent role in the major political unrest of 2008, by taking part in demonstrations led by monks and staging protests in schools and on university campuses. Tibetan school children are known to have died when security forces, undeterred by the presence of children, opened fire on crowds of Tibetan protesters.
• Two school protests were reported in April 2009, in Labrang (Chin: Xiahe), Sangchu county. These protests did not focus on general political demands, rather, students expressed dissatisfaction with issues concerning access to higher education. The protests had, however, been triggered in part by the publication of articles critical of the Dalai Lama. Pupils were reportedly detained.
• A year later, in March 2010, protests in Sangchu county were again reported; in one incident the students were surrounded by armed police, and a number of the children were detained and interrogated.
• Meanwhile, also in Gansu province, protests led by school children occurred in Machu (Chin: Maqu) in March and April 2010, in part against government controls. Armed police surrounded protesters calling for Tibetan independence. Three students, Tsering Dorjee, Thubten Nyima and Tsering Dhondup, two of them known to be seventeen years of age, were sentenced in September 2010, each for two years.

A more comprehensive, albeit not exhaustive list of protests by students and school pupils, related to language or education issues or else is provided in the two tables following this Special Report.

Language, education, employment and politics

The prospect of Tibetan language-related protests were notably predicted by Tibetan writer and blogger Woeser, soon after large-scale pro-Cantonese language protests occurred in Guangdong province, southeast China, in July 2010(9). Her blog aired the opinion that a comparable protest for the Tibetan language would probably be swiftly repressed as 'political' and 'splittist', thus illustrating the inequality between ethnic Tibetans and Chinese.

That no open repression seems to have ensued so far might be the result of a very circumspect attitude by Tibetan protesters and their painstaking efforts to separate the single issue of language and education policy from broader political demands. For example, 19 October saw a major demonstration in Rebkong (Chin: Tongren), Qinghai, in which students from six schools and colleges, including teacher-training colleges took part. Other Tibetans joined the protests, with reports of the total number of protesters ranging from 800 to 8,000. Significantly, monks were reportedly discouraged from participating for fear that the demonstration could then be construed as 'political', resulting in a confrontation with armed police(10). Calls for independence or autonomy and the return of the Dalai Lama were replaced with slogans taking up the government's own rhetoric and parlance: "Equality Among Nationalities" as well as "Expand the Use of the Tibetan Language" were the demands expressed on banners. The protesters shouted slogans including "Racial equality! Free education!" The protest in Beijing on 22 October saw Tibetans carrying a banner with the slogan: "Protect ethnic minority languages, carry forward Chinese civilisation"(11).

The protesters also found support on 24 October 2010 from a group of elderly, retired, and respected Tibetans associated with education matters in Qinghai. Radio Free Asia reported that the group addressed a letter to the provincial Department of Education, calling for an independent panel of education experts to study the issue of language policy. The letter stated: "We would like to appeal to make sure that the issue of Tibetan language may not be used as a political tool to undermine the harmonious relationship among the nationalities and compromise the security of China". […] "The illegal practice of imparting education to Tibetan students by using only Chinese language should be stopped". The letter demanded "deep, healthy relation between Chinese and Tibetans" and sought respect for and implementation of "the charter of autonomy for minorities and constitution of China". The letter ended with the remark that "the protection and progress of the Tibetan language is conducive for the harmonious sustenance of many other languages".

Ironically, a crackdown on Tibetan protesters over language issues could raise the very same type of international criticism that China attempted to deter in 2008 by publicising its policies of language protection and bilingual education. Inversely, these policies can hardly be showcased as examples of the PRC's achievements in Tibet as long as the issues that generated the current protests are not resolved. This makes it surprising in the first place that Qinghai's provincial government, which administers a politically volatile region with a substantial Tibetan population, chose to make an explicit policy statement that, if applied, would mean a downgrading of the Tibetan language within the education system. This is even more significant since the region has the highest level of Tibetan literacy among laypeople and is also recognised as the centre of modern Tibetan intellectualism.

As well as the threat to Tibetan language, which the proposed language policies represent, Tibetan graduates fear that they will be further disadvantaged by Chinese competition, especially in the field of teaching. Many Tibetan students aspire to become teachers and return home after graduating in Mainland China to teach in Tibetan schools. This is widely viewed by Tibetans as a respectable career that also offers guaranteed professional employment. This aspiration accompanies China's main minority education goals: to create minority elites loyal to the Party and rooted in a Chinese national framework that would act as a stabilising factor within minority communities.

In some cases, the limited availability of a sufficient number of trained teachers, recently graduated from urban areas in Mainland China and willing to work in rural areas, is identified as an obstacle to providing education for all. Elsewhere, an argument for quality of education and efficiency, rather than simply provision, has seen the replacement of small rural schools with boarding schools in towns. This trend has also seen redundancies among untrained Tibetan teachers in favour of trained Chinese teachers, constituting a major factor in the elimination of the Tibetan language from the education system. Indeed, the actual introduction of the proposed policies would not necessarily mark a key turning point or unprecedented trend in educational practices, although it clearly is a policy change. Rather, the presence of Tibetan language in the education system throughout Tibetan regions has for some considerable time been eroded, even within the context of bilingual primary schooling. This has been due to a variety of factors: increasing employment of Chinese teachers in Tibetan schools, preparing Tibetan children for secondary school entrance exams, shortage of teaching materials in Tibetan, and a pragmatic acceptance by many Tibetan parents and teachers of the need for children to learn and study in Chinese in order to continue in education and compete in a job market which is severely biased towards Chinese language. For this latter reason, some parents have attempted to place their children in mainstream rather than minority schools. The dominance of Chinese in the workplace is such that teachers and education officials, Tibetan and Chinese, with a genuine concern for increased educational attainment amongst Tibetans face the dilemma and trade-off between minority culture and language on the one hand, and increased employment prospects on the other.

Tibetan children are disadvantaged educationally by the use of Chinese language, which many encounter for the first time in school. Some Tibetan schools even offer a two-track system where students can be inducted on the path of either Tibetan or Chinese as their primary teaching medium; those on the Tibetan track may be advantaged throughout their primary education, but disadvantaged in future. What is described as a preferential policy for Tibetans - giving high school candidates additional points to qualify for secondary education - does not sufficiently redress the balance and has been subject to abuse with Chinese parents attempting to enrol their children in minority schools using fake identification. A bone of contention in protests in Golog, Qinghai province in 2004, was that many Tibetan parents had sold animals to fund college education for their children having received official guarantees, which failed to materialise, of employment after graduation. Instead, outsiders were given local jobs.

Literacy levels are seen as an important indicator in the international discourse of education for all, most notably embodied in the Millennium Development Goals. Questions of literacy in dominant or minority languages and the highly political implications of endorsing the unquestionably intrinsic 'good' of education and literacy are overlooked. China measures literacy in Chinese. Efforts to provide education and expand literacy in effect means efforts to promote the Chinese language over Tibetan.

Ultimately, the core of the problem is the failure of the PRC to live up to its declared commitment of developing minority areas with the same impetus as there is in Mainland China. Although often portrayed as inherently embedded in an inevitable contradiction between 'tradition' and 'modernity', the dilemma of Tibetan education is nothing natural. It has been shaped over six decades by the mismanagement of ethnic issues, partly due to the lack of attention for and understanding of the minorities, and partly because Beijing's policies towards them was motivated more by suspicions over their loyalty to the Chinese state, than by accurate needs assessment and reasonable foresight. Consequently, in Tibet as in most other minority regions, no truly local leadership has been built up and no modern social space emerged that could have fostered local culture and economy and hence provided jobs and entire social sectors, that are genuinely Tibetan and which would take place in the Tibetan language. Instead of autonomous and locally-rooted development, a culture of dependence has emerged that makes the mastering of the economically, politically and ethnically dominant idiom the basis for the success of almost any activity (apart from the remnants of the traditional religious ones). Parallels with the situation in formally colonised countries just after gaining independence cannot be ignored.

While there is no easy answer to the question how to reverse this situation, it appears certain that a failure to address the grievances of the students may well result in broader political demands being made and an escalation of tensions.

Table 1: Examples of reported protests by students and school pupils since 2004 (Protests related to language, education or job prospects in grey)
Date	Location	Summary
21 September– October 2004 [or: 7 September – 7 October]	the Golog Prefecture government office presumably in Golog town Golog (Chin: Guoluo) TAP, Qinghai Province	At least 200 mostly Tibetan graduates began camping near the Golog Prefecture government office on 21 September, beginning a two-week protest, after officials failed to deliver on promises to provide jobs to graduates, while jobs assigned to outside candidates brought into the area in preference over local applicants. The graduates’ families had been encouraged to pay high college fees – often by selling family property or livestock – after being promised that their children would secure good jobs upon graduating. • RFA 12/10/2004 Protesters were more than 300 unemployed Tibetan graduates; the protest lasted one month: 7 September to 7 October 2004. • TCHRD Human Rights Update and Archives November 2006
May 2006	the Golog Prefecture government office presumably in Golog town Golog (Chin: Guoluo) TAP, Qinghai Province	Tibetan college graduates working in restaurants and guesthouses, and who had protested in September-October 2004, “made a re-appeal”, calling for access to jobs by Tibetans and for the use of both Tibetan and Chinese languages in schools and offices. • TCHRD Human Rights Update and Archives November 2006
27-28 October 2006	Lhasa, Lhasa Municipality, Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR)	Hundreds of Tibetan graduates from various universities in China staged a “weeklong” protest over alleged discrimination by Chinese authorities in hiring for civil service jobs. Different groups of about 200 graduates protested for several days in front of the TAR government offices and the Department of Education in Lhasa. No violence reported; no arrests. On 30 September 2006, 1,000 Tibetan and Chinese candidates sat TAR government exams conducted in Chinese for 100 positions; most questions were about ancient history but the Tibetan students had studied modern history in preparation. Jobs were, reportedly, offered to 98 Chinese and two Tibetan applicants. Subsequently, the number of openings increased to 140, authorities announced plans to employ 71 more Tibetans. • RFA 08/11/2006 The protest occurred on 27 and 28 October 2006. • TCHRD Human Rights Update and Archives November 2006
Late Spring to Autumn 2007	Diverse locations in Sichuan Province	Children in local schools have been asked to write essays denouncing the Dalai Lama and his ‘separatist clique’.
August 2007	Bora Middle School, Bora, Sangchu (Ch: Xiahe) county, Kanlho (Ch: Gannan) TAP, Gansu Province	The words ‘Free Tibet’ were written on walls in the school basketball court; children questioned. • HRW 20/09/2007
7 September 2007	Bora Middle School, Bora, Sangchu (Ch: Xiahe) county, Kanlho (Ch: Gannan) TAP, Gansu Province	Four schoolboys detained around 7 September remain in custody (as of 2 October) after being beaten for an alleged offence of scribbling graffiti on the walls of the school and the village police station, calling for the Dalai Lama's return or freedom for Tibet. A fifth boy reportedly very ill in hospital with possible head injuries following maltreatment in Xiahe detention center. Two other boys, both 14, sent home upon payment of large fines by their families. All were made to carry out hard labor while in detention; some of the boys were reportedly beaten with electric shock prods. Dozens of students had initially been detained; most released within two days. • ICT 02/10/2007
Early November 2007	Rebkong, Rebkong (Chin: Tongren) county, Malho (Chin: Huangnan) TAP, Qinghai Province	More than 200 Tibetan college graduates working as locally hired village teachers staged a two-week protest in front of the Rebkong county office buildings, against low pay. • RFA 23/11/2007
2008	Multiple locations	Protests in schools and colleges instigated by students; several child casualties of shootings by security forces reported. No direct relation to language, education or job prospects issues. SEE SEPARATE TABLE BELOW FOR MORE DETAILS
24 April 2009	Kanlho Tibetan Middle School, Sangchu (Ch: Xiahe) county, Kanlho (Ch: Gannan) TAP, Gansu province	A group of Tibetan school students demonstrated at around 8 am, against the authorities’ “false practice of granting reserved seats for higher education meant for the Tibetan students to the Chinese students”. • TCHRD 24/04/2009 Further reasons for the protest were two articles published under the pseudonym of Yidor entitled “Deception and Meanness of Dalai Lama” and “No Escape for the Dalai” published in the bilingual Kanlho Daily. “No Escape for the Dalai” had been posted on a school notice board. • TCHRD 30/06/2009
30 April 2009	Sangchu Tibetan Nationality Elementary School, Sangchu (Ch: Xiahe) county, Kanlho (Ch: Gannan) TAP, Gansu province	Students of the Sangchu Tibetan Nationality Elementary School demonstrated with the slogan “Stop Defaming the Dalai Lama”, in response to the publication of an article published in the Kanlho Daily. Thirteen students were subsequently arrested and then released after a brief period of detention. • TCHRD 30/06/2009
19 June 2009	Kanlho Tibetan Middle School, Sangchu (Ch: Xiahe) county, Kanlho (Ch: Gannan) TAP, Gansu province	Two students, both from Sangkhok Township, Sangchu county, of Kanlho Tibetan Middle School were expelled from their school on 19 June 2009 for their involvement in a protest on 24 April 2009. • TCHRD 30/06/2009
10 March 2010	Dzoege (Ch: Ruo’ergai) county, Ngaba (CH: Aba) Q&TAP, Sichuan Province	Tibetan school students wore Tibetan national dress and lit butter lamps on school campuses (51st anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan uprising). Police arrested sixteen students. • Phayul 06/04/2010
14 March 2010	Ditsa township, Bayan Khar (Ch: Hualong) county, Tsoshar (Ch: Haidong) TAP, Qinghai Province	Three Tibetans arrested for allegedly putting up posters around Ditsa monastery campus calling for return of the Dalai Lama and “an end to repression in Tibet”. Monastery surrounded by armed Public Security Bureau and People’s Armed Police personnel. • TCHRD 19/03/2010
14 March 2010	Dzoege (Ch: Ruo’ergai) county, Ngaba (CH: Aba) Q&TAP, Sichuan Province	Tibetan school students wore Tibetan national dress and lit butter lamps on school campuses (2nd anniversary of the 2008 Tibetan unrest). Three Tibetan teachers at a teacher training school were arrested by the police in the school campus. • Phayul 06/04/2010
14 March 2010	Machu Tibetan Middle School, Machu (Ch: Maqu), Machu (Ch: Maqu) county, Kanlho (Ch: Gannan) TAP, Gansu Province	Dozens of Tibetan middle-school students staged a protest against tight government controls (including around “3,000 Chinese security forces” [sic] stationed in the area) on the second anniversary of the 2008 unrest. The students had also been angered by an official rebuff of a planned forum on the topic “Tibetan experiences of joy and sorrow”. At around 11 am or 12 pm, about 30 students protested in streets close to the county center; joined by 500-600 other Tibetans; shouted against the lack of freedom, called for Tibetan independence; surrounded by security forces; at least 40 people subsequently detained. Then, around 400-500 Tibetans gathered in front of government offices, demanded the release of those detained. Protesters reportedly shouted for the long life of the Dalai Lama, demanded resolution of the Sino-Tibetan dialogue; protested for 30-40 minutes, then surrounded by armed police • RFA 16/03/2010 About thirty students staged a protest in streets close to the county government against tight government controls and calling for Tibetan independence; joined by 500 to 600 other Tibetans. Surrounded by security forces; at least 40 people detained; the town was subsequently ‘crawling’ with military police. • Reuters 18/03/2010
16 March 2010	Kanlho Tibetan Middle School No. 3	Students protested; prevented from leaving the school grounds by school security officials and teachers. • RFA 19/03/2010
16 March 2010	Kanlho Prefecture Middle School, Sangchu (Ch: Xiahe) county, Kanlho (Ch: Gannan) TAP, Gansu Province	Students protested and gathered in the street; police and People’s Armed Police personnel surrounded the students and forced them back into the school compound; about 20 students were detained, interrogated, and released. Students and teachers at the school questioned. An “increased presence of Chinese forces” in the area. • RFA 19/03/2010
17 March 2010	Tsoe (Ch: Gannan/Hezuo/Hezuoshen) county, Kanlho (Ch: Gannan) TAP, Gansu Province	Tibetan high school students protested in the streets; at least 20 teenagers arrested. • Reuters 18/03/2010
22 March 2010	Kham Driru, Driru (Ch: Biru) county, Nagchu (Ch: Naqu) Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR)	More than 20 primary school students protested against Chinese rule; surrounded by security forces; parents interrogated. No further details available. • Phayul 24/03/2010
3 April 2010	Machu Tibetan Nationality Middle School, Machu (Ch: Maqu), Machu (Ch: Maqu) county, Kanlho (Ch: Gannan) TAP, Gansu Province	Tibetan school students protested against government controls, including the dismissal in March of headmaster Kyabchen Dedrol (whereabouts unknown) and two assistants, Do Re (arrested) and Choekyong Tseten (arrested, whereabouts unknown) after a pro-independence protest by students on 14 March. Students submitted petitions for the release of the teachers to the local government; the petition was ignored and the 3 April protest followed. School subsequently surrounded by armed police; students reportedly forced to remain on campus, cannot make contact with the outsiders.• Phayul 08/04/2010 Tibetan students staged a protest against the Chinese authorities sacking their school heads following a protest by students of the school in March 2010. • TCHRD 09/04/2010
6 April 2010	Machu Tibetan Nationality Middle School, Machu (Ch: Maqu), Machu (Ch: Maqu) county, Kanlho (Ch: Gannan) TAP, Gansu Province	Machu Tibetan Middle School Two students expelled for criticizing the government’s patriotic education campaign. • RFA 14/10/2010 Two students, Tsering Dhondup and Thupten Nyima, arrested for allegedly leading the 14 March protest • Phayul 03/05/2010 Two students, Ngawang Lhamo and Rabten Dorjee, expelled for criticising the government’s patriotic re-education campaign in April this year (Phayul 13/10/2010) • Phayul 13/10/2010
6 April 2010	Northwest University for Nationalities, Lanzhou, Gansu Province	Around 16 officials from the local Public Security Bureau arrived in the university hostel and ransacked students’ rooms; confiscated cellular phones, laptop computers, study materials / books from students. Two Tibetan students arrested. Students have threatened to launch protest against the authorities if they continue the “infringement of students’ privacy and disturbance of academic life.” “If the government continues to violate our freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, freedom of thought” we will certainly protest,” a student had told our source. • Phayul 07/04/2010
8 April 2010	Khar primary school, Serthar (Ch: Seda) county, Kardze (Chin: Ganzi) TAP, Sichuan Province	More than thirty students were detained by the Chinese security forces following a minor stone-throwing incident that took place after security forces paraded two monks on a vehicle while being beaten by the security forces; the monks had been arrested earlier for staging a protest. On reaching the Khar Primary School area, students started pelting stones at the vehicles and shouted slogans; “Glasses of the security forces’ vehicles were smashed”; a few “security forces” were injured. Students later wrote posters calling for Tibet’s independence and pasted them around the school walls and on the teachers’ desks. • TCHRD 15/04/2010 School children reportedly hurled stones at Chinese security forces parading two Tibetan monks on a vehicle; the monks had apparently been involved in anti-government protests in the area. • Phayul 19/04/2010
22 April 2010 – (3 May 2010?)	Machu Tibetan Nationality Middle School, Machu (Ch: Maqu), Machu (Ch: Maqu) county, Kanlho (Ch: Gannan) TAP, Gansu Province	Tibetan students on hunger strike since 22 April demanding the release of three teachers detained following 14 March student protest. The students also demanded an end to the inclusion of “communist doctrines and policies” in the school curriculum. • Phayul 03/05/2010
Circa 30 April 2010	Machu Tibetan Nationality Middle School, Machu (Ch: Maqu), Machu (Ch: Maqu) county, Kanlho (Ch: Gannan) TAP, Gansu Province	Two students expelled after expressing opposition to the arrests of teachers and students. • Phayul 03/05/2010
Summer 2010 ?	Tsoe (Ch: Gannan/Hezuo/Hezuoshen) county, Kanlho (Ch: Gannan) TAP, Gansu Province	Protest posters had appeared several months [before 19/10/2010] in Tsoe (Ch: Hezuo) county [this could mean specifically the county’s capital town] when students there were forced to use textbooks translated into Chinese [or more likely, simply “Chinese textbooks”]. “The number of Tibetans admitted to schools in the area was also reduced, and some Tibetan teachers and staff were fired from their jobs for no apparent reason” [it is not totally clear if this quote refers to Tsoe, Gansu or Rebkong, Qinghai, but appears to be Tsoe]. • RFA 19/10/2010
8 September 2010	Machu Tibetan Nationality Middle School, Machu (Ch: Maqu), Machu (Ch: Maqu) county, Kanlho (Ch: Gannan) TAP, Gansu Province	Tsering Dorjee, detained in March, sentenced to two years’ imprisonment, accused of leading protests by some 30 students from the Machu Tibetan Nationality Middle School on 14 March. Over 500 other Tibetans had joined the student protest, demanding Tibetan independence; shouting “against the lack of freedom”. At least 40 people were detained following the protest. Tsering Dorjee was tried by an Intermediate Court in Kanlho Prefecture on 8 September 2010. Currently at a detention centre in Tianshui, Gansu. • Phayul 13/10/2010
12 September 2010	Machu Tibetan Middle School, Machu (Ch: Maqu), Machu (Ch: Maqu) county, Kanlho (Ch: Gannan) TAP, Gansu Province	Two Tibetan students sentenced to two-year jail terms by Gannan Municipal Intermediate People’s Court in connection with protests. They had been detained in March 2010, accused of leading protests by some 30 students from the Machu county Tibetan Middle School. Neither of them had been assisted by lawyers. They were transferred to a prison in Tianshui, Gansu on 12 October. An official at the Kanlho county education bureau denied the sentencing had taken place. • RFA 14/10/2010 Circa 24 September 2010: Thupten Nyima, a “Tibetan student leader” detained in March for leading a protest by 30 students against the Chinese government has been tried by the an Intermediate Court in Kanlho Prefecture and sentenced to two years’ imprisonment; whereabouts unknown Over 500 other Tibetans later joined the student protest on 14 March; protestors demanded Tibetan independence, shouted against the lack of freedom. At least 40 people were detained following the protest. • Phayul 24/09/2010
15 October 2010	XIning. Qinghai province	A letter of appeal signed by around 300 teachers was submitted to the Qinghai government on October 15 urging the provincial government to reconsider its decision to change the medium of instruction from Tibetan to Chinese. Citing the Chinese constitution, the teachers wrote in the letter that the Article 4 of the Chinese constitution provides for all ethnic groups the freedom to use and develop their own spoken and written languages and to preserve or reform their own folkways and customs. • Phayul 25/10/2010
18 October 2010	Tsolho (Ch: Hainan) TAP, Qinghai Province	Student protests • RFA 21/10/2010
19 October 2010	Rebkong, Rebkong county (Ch. Tongren), Malho TAP (Ch: Huangnan) Qinghai Province	Up to 1,000, 5,000-7,000, or over 7,000 Tibetan students from six different schools “have protested a forced change in the language of their instruction from Tibetan to Chinese”, according to Tibetan sources; carried banners, written in both Tibetan and Chinese, reading “Equality Among Nationalities” and “Expand the Use of the Tibetan Language”. Monks from Rebkong Rongpo monastery joined in the protest after it began, though the students at first asked them not to take part: “They feared that the monks’ involvement could provoke the Chinese authorities to send armed Public Security Bureau officers to crack down on the protesters”, a monk said. No official confirmation of the protest size could be obtained. • RFA 19/10/2010 Thousands of Tibetan students protested against education reforms. Rebkong’s First National Middle School students began the protest during the morning and were joined by students from the Tongren County Yifu Nationalities Middle School, the Tongren District Residential School, the Tongren Modern Medicine College, the Malho National Teacher Training Institute, and the Malho Nationalities Middle School. Reaching the county and prefecture government gate. Called for Equality for Nationalities and Freedom for Language. They were joined by the public and monks from Rebkong monastery. According to TCHRD, the demonstration was “not political in nature” but demanded respect and protection of Tibetan culture. The protest continued into the afternoon; police presence, no arrests. [TCHRD] • TCHRD 20/10/2010 At least 1,000 (estimates range from 1,000-7,000) Tibetan students protested following unconfirmed reports of plans to curb the use of the Tibetan language in schools; the march was allowed to pass without police interference; protesters disbursed after discussions with government officials. • BBC 20/10/2010 Student protests: The protest began on Tuesday, sparked by students from the Tongren County No.1 Middle School; Marched, shouted slogans: “Racial equality! Free education!” Thousands of Tibetan high school and college students took part in the demonstrations amid fears they will be forced to adopt a Chinese-language-only curriculum. • RFA 21/10/2010 4,000-6,000 Tibetan students from six Tibetan schools aged 14-20 took to the streets, chanting: “we want equality of culture”. Students from the National Senior Middle School began the march at 7am; joined by increasing numbers of students from other schools. The students gathered outside the government building; police did not interfere with the protest. That evening, the governor and the director general of the TAP’s education department visited the Teachers’ School of Malho and gave assurances to about 15 selected students that there would be no changes in schools in Malho county; warned that the 'ringleaders' of any future protests would be expelled. • FTC 22/10/2010 Protests over plans to restrict the use of Tibetan language in classrooms. • High Peaks Pure Earth 22/10/2010
19 October 2010	Malho (Ch: Huangnan) TAP, Qinghai Province	Students from the teacher training college in Malho held a banner with the slogan: “Return the authority of the Tibetan language.” • High Peaks Pure Earth 22/10/2010
19 October 2010	Chentsa (Ch: Jianza) town, Malho (Ch: Huangnan) TAP, Qinghai Province	Students protests. • Phayul 25/10/2010
19 October 2010	Chabcha (Ch: Gonghe) county, Tsolho (Ch: Hainan) TAP, Qinghai Province	Students from Tsolho Tibetan Teacher Training School prevented from protesting by police and teachers • FTC 22/10/2010
20 October 2010	Chabcha (Ch: Gonghe) county, Tsolho (Ch: Hainan) TAP, Qinghai Province	Thousands more students took to the streets in various towns in Chabcha (Chinese: Gonghe) county. Tibetan students aged between 11 and 18 carried banners, written in both Tibetan and Chinese, reading “Equality Among Nationalities” and “Expand the Use of the Tibetan Language”. Participants reportedly students with no public participation. All protest marching was peaceful and orderly. • ICT 22/10/2010 Protests over plans to restrict the use of Tibetan language in classrooms. • High Peaks Pure Earth 22/10/2010 Students from Tsolho Tibetan Teacher Training School protested from around 8-9am; joined by up to 2,000 students from three local schools; marched to the prefectural government building chanting “We want back freedom for Tibetan language”. • FTC 22/10/2010 About 2,000 students from four schools demonstrated, shouting: "We want freedom for Tibetan language" (The Guardian cited Free Tibet [Campaign]) • The Guardian 22/10/2010
20 October 2010	Tsigorthang (Xinghai) county, Tsolho (Ch: Hainan) TAP, Qinghai Province	Tibetan middle school students demonstrated • FTC 22/10/2010
21 October 2010	Tawu (Tawo, Dawu), Golog (Chin: Guoluo) TAP, Qinghai Province	Tibetan middle school students protested from sunrise; monitored by armed police from 2pm onwards; protesters prevented from going onto the streets. Students protest for language rights • Free Tibet Campaign 22/10/2010
21 October 2010	Gedun Cheopel Middle School, Shopongshi (Ch: Shuang peng xi) township, Rebkong (Ch: Tongren) county, Malho (Ch: Huangnan) TAP, Qinghai Province	8am, about 500 middle school students from Gedun Cheopel Middle School (aged 12-14) marched to Shonpongshi township government building; attempted to march to the capital of Rebkong county (about 8km away) but were stopped at the gate of Tongren County Aluminum Manufactory at around midday by the Rebkong county governor of and the county education department director. • FTC 22/10/2010
21 October 2010	Chentsa (Ch: Jianza) town, Malho (Ch: Huangnan) TAP, Qinghai Province	Students protests. • Phayul 25/10/2010
22 October 2010	Minzu University of China, Beijing	Over 400 Tibetan students from the Tibetan Studies department of Minzu University of China (formerly known as the Central University for Nationalities) held a protest on the campus today (October 22, 2010) at noon. • High Peaks Pure Earth 22/10/2010 Between 200 and 300 Tibetan students at the Central University for Minorities protest plans to elevate Chinese to the main language of instruction in western China schools. • Los Angeles Times 22/10/2010 Between 200 and 300 Tibetan students at the Central University for Nationalities in Beijing held a peaceful demonstration; it ended when the students were taken to classrooms by the head of the university and other officials, and told them to write down their complaints. • The Guardian 22/10/2010
October 2010	Lhasa	Hundreds of Tibetan graduates of the Institute of Tibetan Traditional Medicine protested in front of the Tibet Autonomous Region offices in Lhasa, carrying banners demanding an increase in available jobs. In an interview by Radio Free Asia, a Tibetan closely associated with the Lhasa institute said: "Many Tibetan students who have texted [by cell phone] among themselves have been detained.” • ICT 22/10/2010 • RFA
Circa 22-24 October 2010	Khrigha	Student protests. • Phayul 25/10/2010
23 October 2010	Chabcha (Ch: Gonghe) county, Tsolho (Ch: Hainan) TAP, Qinghai Province	Student protests; twenty students detained. • Phayul 25/10/2010
24 October 2010	Chentsa (Ch: Jianza) town, Malho (Ch: Huangnan) TAP, Qinghai Province	Several hundred students and teachers from high schools in Chentsa took to the streets in support of the continued use of Tibetan language in local schools • RFA 25/10/2010 Thousands of students, joined by teachers and school staff, protested in the streets of Chentsa county town from around 7.30 am; demanded a reversal of the government’s decision to replace Tibetan language as medium of instruction in Tibetan schools by Chinese language. • Phayul 25/10/2010
26 - 27 October 2010	Tsayi, Sangchu (Chin: Xiahe) county, Gansu province	Thousands of Tibetan students are reported to have demonstrated.

Notes:
1: Learning and fostering the Tibetan language is even praised in contemporary pop songs. See for instance: www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDqBXnUaMVY&feature=related
2: A translation of parts of the plan prepared by the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) is available under www.savetibet.org/media-center/ict-news-reports/tibetan-teachers-write-petition-support-tibetan-language-fears-students-after-detentions.
3: People's Daily, 'Qinghai province Party Secretary Qiang Wei: Make "bi-lingual" education a livelihood project', 30 September 2010; http://edu.ifeng.com/news/detail_2010_09/30/2683643_0.shtml.
4: The report in the People's Daily of 30 September, which referred to the above mentioned June meeting is widely understood to have triggered the October 2010 demonstrations in Qinghai. However, that Radio Free Asia reports protests already for "Summer 2010" in Tsoe/Gannan over Chinese language textbooks could indicate that similar measures as those proposed in Qinghai are also in preparation for Gansu. Although the Tibetan areas are administratively spread over five PRC provinces, policies for Tibetans are centrally drafted in Beijing and then handed down to Party and government authorities in the provinces for implementation. Incidentally, since most Tibetan textbooks are published centrally, changes in one of the Tibetan regions may well have a knock-on effect in the others.
5: A report by the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) quoting local sources mentioned the detention of more than 20 students from the Tibetan Middle School in Chabcha (Chin: Gonghe) on Friday 22 October 2010, as well possible investigations by the authorities of students who participated in protests. This could not be confirmed so far.
6: http://eng.tibet.cn/news/today/201010/t20101024_760343.htm.
7: See for instance the UK's Guardian of 22 October 2010; www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/22/tibetan-school-pupils-protest-language-china.
8: On these campaigns and the adverse effect they generated, see: Tibet Spring. Looking back on the 2008 protests: www.tibetinfonet.net/content/update/159.
9: Tsering Woeser: If Tibetans Took To The Streets For The Tibetan Language, a blogpost written for Radio Free Asia on 28 July 2010, posted on Woeser's blog in Chinese on 05 August 2010, translated into English by High Peaks Pure Earth and posted online on 09 August 2010. Available at: www.highpeakspureearth.com/2010/08/if-tibetans-took-to-streets-for-tibetan.html.
10: This is reminiscent of the anti-fur events of spring 2006, where, in order not to provoke the authorities, at many locations monks were asked not to take an active role. See: 'Accounts of wildlife skins burning', www.tibetinfonet.net/content/update/15.
11: Rebkong is a particularly sensitive location for protests for at least two reasons. In November 2007, over two hundred Tibetan college graduates working as village schoolteachers staged a demonstration here for better wages. Also, in February 2008, Rebkong was the location of the first major political unrest of 2008 (contrary to widespread media reports of the unrest beginning in Lhasa in March and then spreading across the Tibetan plateau; on that, see: 'Tibet Spring. Looking back on the 2008 protests'; www.tibetinfonet.net/content/update/159).