Appendix 1:Testimonials (selected)


Case # 1
Name : Anonymous (A1)
Age : 14
Sex : Male
Region : Chamdo
Number of school years in Tibet : 2 years
Date of interview : April 9, 1997
Place of interview : TCV, Dharamsala, India

Case History He left Tibet in August 1995. His mother is dead and his father, who was in prison for a year and reportedly tortured, is currently living in Nepal. He came to India to receive a good education and plans to return to Tibet after class 10, when he can read and write, in order to fight for freedom.

Testimony "I come from the countryside where there was only one village school I could go to. Because I already knew the alphabet a little bit, I began school at class II. We had three subjects: maths, Chinese and Tibetan. The general teaching language was Tibetan.

"We had two teachers; one was Chinese and one was Tibetan. The Chinese teacher would often sleep in class. For example, when we had a two-hour Chinese lesson, the teacher would give one hour and in the second hour he would sleep. This happened every day. The Tibetan teacher never slept in class.

"We had no subjects about Tibetan culture. Even if we learned Tibetan the texts we were presented were all about Mao and great Chinese. We were taught about the red scarf Mao ties around his neck; that it shows his blood and sweat on his scarf. Later the questions in the examinations were about Mao's life and what we thought about it. We were not allowed to honour Tibetan holidays, except for Losar, the Tibetan new year. Although we did not have a school uniform and we were allowed to wear coloured clothes, we were forbidden to wear Tibetan clothes to school.

"I felt discriminated against relative to the Chinese students. If we were given books, the Chinese students were always provided with the better books. When we asked why, we were told that the Chinese were more intelligent. The teacher used to call us names when he saw that our face was Tibetan. He told me that I was Tibetan and of no use and he made me clean the class room.

"For the same mistake a Tibetan student would get three whips, while the Chinese student only received one whip. When we were punished the Chinese teacher made us stand on a chair with bricks on our head and in our outstretched hands. When a brick fell, we were beaten. The Chinese teacher used different things to beat us with: a rubber whip, an electric wire or the leg of a chair. We were beaten all over the body. Many times I had to go to hospital after being beaten by the Chinese teacher and two or three times I had to be hospitalised. I know of a boy who had to stay two weeks in hospital because of his beatings and another boy who had two legs fractured. Girls were beaten in the same way.

"We were also beaten by the Tibetan teacher, but only if the Chinese were watching. If no Chinese was watching he would only advise us. Even if he had to beat us, he only acted as if he was striking us hard with the whip. Actually it did not hurt very much but we acted as if it hurt a lot so that the teacher would not get in trouble.

"After 4.30 p.m. there were no more classes and we had to sit idle in the classroom. Three or four times a week we were asked during this time whether our parents talked about Tibetan politics or the Dalai Lama. When the children admitted that their parents spoke about these things they were rewarded with presents - money or food. The parents were then called to meetings and sometimes were then fined or put into prison.

"My parents were not free to send me to the school of their choice. It was the Chinese who chose which school I should go to. My parents had to pay fees to send me to primary school: a yearly fee of 350 yuan and an extra monthly fee of 12 yuan. I did not have to pay any bribes to the teachers since I came from a very poor family but other students, who came from richer families, had to pay bribes. I don't think I could ever have visited a lobdring (middle school). I don't know anybody who ever went to a lobdring."

Case # 4
Name : Anonymous (A 4)
Age : 12 years
Sex : Male
Region : Lhasa
Number of school years in Tibet : To 4th grade
Date of interview : April 10, 1997
Place of interview : TCV, Dharamsala, India

Case History He left Tibet in June 1996 in order to receive education and because his parents feared that if he spoke only Chinese in school he would lose his Tibetan background. He was also afraid of ill-treatment by the Chinese. After finishing school in India, although he would like to see his parents, he does not want to go back to Tibet unless it is a free country.

Testimony "I attended a schungtsug school (a government established primary school) where the general teaching language was Chinese. Seventy percent of the teachers were Chinese. When I started school I did not speak any Chinese. At the beginning I was still allowed to answer the teachers in Tibetan but I had great problems in understanding what the teachers wanted of me. For two periods a day we had Tibetan language classes but there were no classes about Tibetan culture, religion or history.

"Although we were expected to have six periods each day, we were only taught two or three periods. Afterwards we had to attend class activities, like playing football or cleaning the school ground.

"I generally felt discriminated against compared to the Chinese students. If there were two books to be distributed, a new one and an old one, the Chinese student would always be issued the new book. If there was a fight between a Chinese and a Tibetan student, the Tibetan student would be punished much more severely. The Chinese girls were also treated better than the Tibetan girls. One time a Chinese girl broke a window. She only had to pay the price of a new window which was five yuan but when a Tibetan girl later broke the same window she had to pay 25 yuan.

"We were not able to express our opinions. They made us learn things about the life of Mao and examined us about this. The grades in examinations depended on our answers to ideological questions about Mao and Chinese socialism.

"We were punished severely. Sometimes we were lashed with a rubber whip; we had to pull down our pants and we were lashed on our behinds. One time, on the way to the toilet, a Chinese student tripped over me accidentally. He then went up to a Chinese teacher and told him that I had made him fall. The teacher made me get some sand. Then he mixed the sand with pieces of broken glass and water and this muddy mixture was spread out on the floor. I then had to kneel for one hour in this mud. The glass cut into my knees and into my feet. It hurt very much and my knees were bleeding. The teacher told me that if I moved because it hurt I would have to kneel for an even longer time. I still dream about it.

"When I got home and my father saw my cuts he took me to a doctor who sent me to hospital. I went to a government hospital in Lhasa and had four stitches put in my right knee [the interviewee pointed out the small scar on his knee]. I stayed in hospital for four weeks due to some infection. Another Tibetan boy had received the same punishment. As his cuts didn't look as serious as mine he didn't see a doctor and it was ten or twelve days later, when pus had begun to build up in his knee, that he went to the same hospital where I had been. The glass had gone all the way to the bone and infected it and later the boy's leg had to be amputated from the knee down."

Case # 10
Name : Anonymous (A 10)
Age : 13 years
Sex : Female
Region : Kham (Dergie)
Number of school years in Tibet : 7 years
Date of interview : April 14, 1997
Place of interview : TCV, Dharamsala, India

Case History In September 1996 she left Tibet out of fear of more punishment by the Chinese in Tibet. She also left Tibet because her parents thought that her education would be better provided in India at the TCV (Tibetan Children's Village). During her school period in Tibet she visited a Schungtsug school and after primary school she attended a Lobdring school for one year. Her parents are both farmers and live in Tibet. Her father was put in prison by the Chinese for two years.

Testimony "At my schungtsug school the general teaching language in the class was Chinese. I received lessons in Chinese, maths, geography, history and Tibetan. The Tibetan language class did not deal with any subjects related to Tibetan history, religion or culture. It dealt mainly with Chinese history, geography and Mao's life stories. Most of my teachers were Chinese.

" In my classroom the windows were broken and there was a leak in the roof. Most of the chairs were broken, but we were able to repair them ourselves. The lessons of the Tibetan teachers took place regularly, but the Chinese teachers never turned up after the school lunch break.

"I attended a lobdring middle school for one year. In order to be accepted at my lobdring school I had to pass an entrance exam in Chinese, Tibetan and maths. I felt that the chances for the Chinese students to be accepted at my lobdring were much better because the parents of the Chinese students paid bribes to the teachers in order to pass the exam. So it was not the result of the exam that counted, but the amount of money paid by Chinese parents to specific teachers. In the case where a Chinese student had an exam result which was not as good as that of a Tibetan student, the Chinese student was nonetheless placed above the Tibetan.

"The general teaching language in my lobdring school was Chinese. I received about 5 periods a week of Tibetan language classes of which none dealt with any subjects relating to Tibet. My lobdring school was a boarding school where I stayed five days a week and during the weekend I went home to my parents' place. My parents had to pay 300 yuan per month for my school fees while the Chinese parents did not have to pay any school fees. The Chinese students received their food from the school, while my parents had to bring or give me food so that I could eat during the school week. The Chinese students received the better books and the better chairs, while the Tibetans received the old books and the broken chairs.

"Quite often I saw Tibetan children were beaten up by Chinese teachers. Specifically the older senior student girls were treated differently by some Chinese teachers. I know of some cases where the Chinese teacher went in to the bedrooms of the older Tibetan girls and sexually abused the Tibetan girls. In the classroom the Chinese teachers punished the girls differently from the boys. The girls had to take off their pants and stand half naked in the classroom so that the Chinese teacher could spank them on the naked lower half of their body. I have been lucky for I have never been sexually abused by any Chinese teacher. Other forms of punishment were to stand on your head with your legs against the wall, or to be given no lunch or to be spanked.

"My examinations depended on ideological questions. For example, if I were to write in my exam that China is not a good country, I would be beaten by my teacher".

"I was obliged to attend evening assemblies about three or four times a month. These assemblies were organised by the Chinese so that they could show us that the Chinese were improving the living standard in Tibet. Also, if some Tibetan had done something wrong, they would punish him in front of our group to show us what would happen to us if we did the same.

"My Chinese teachers regularly asked me to go home and spy on my parents. I was supposed to see if my parents were talking about Tibetan policies or religion. I would pretend to walk home and then turn back after 3 hours in order to tell the teachers that I had not heard any talk from my parents about Tibetan matters. Or I would walk home, play around for a couple of hours and then go back to school and tell my teachers that there was no proof against my parents. In both cases the teacher would beat me because he did not believe me but after a while he would stop beating me and leave me alone. They promised us 200 yuan if we found any evidence against our parents that proved they talked about subjects relating to Tibetan culture, history or religion."

Case # 14
Name : Anonymous (A 14)
Age : 14 years
Sex : Male
Region : Kham
Number of school years in Tibet : 3 years
Date of interview : April 16, 1997
Place of interview : TCV, Dharamsala, India

Case History He left Tibet in July 1996 because he was afraid of Chinese ill-treatment - his father had been in prison for two years and was badly tortured - and he hoped to receive a good education in India. His parents in Tibet live on the income of a small farm.

Testimony "In our village we had a special mangtsug school which was founded by a high Rinpoche (a high Lama). The Chinese authorities did not know anything about this school. Our village was so remote that there were no Chinese living there and we had no police in my village so they could not control what was happening. We had about 100 students and 10 teachers, all Tibetan. The classrooms had no tables or chairs and we had to sit on the floor. There was also no blackboard. The teachers told us that they could not afford any of those things because they received no money from the government. We had no windows in our classroom and the only light we had was the light that came through the classroom door.

"But it was good that the Chinese knew nothing about our school so that the teachers could talk freely. They told us how Tibet was before the Chinese came and they told us about Tibetan culture and religion. I had a cousin who lived in the city and he was never taught about these things.

"Since the government did not pay any money to the school, the teachers collected money from the students and from the villagers. We had to pay 50 yuan a month. If the parents could not afford this they had to pay less.

"Our subjects were Tibetan and maths. We had normal schoolbooks in Tibetan language. At school we were allowed to wear Tibetan clothes and we honoured all of the Tibetan holidays, including the birthday of His Holiness, as well as Chinese New Year. The girls were treated equal to the boys and we did not receive corporal punishment from the teachers.

"I would have liked to attend a middle school but I could never have done so because you had to pass an entrance test in Chinese. I did not speak any Chinese and so I had no chance to attend a middle school. I came to India to get a better education."

Case # 20
Name : Anonymous (A 20)
Age : 13 years
Sex : Female
Region : Kham
Number of school years in Tibet : None
Date of interview : April 18, 1997
Place of interview : TCV in Dharamsala, India

Case History She is a farmers' daughter from the region of Kham who had always helped her parents on their farmland. She has never been to school in Tibet. She is the youngest of her family and has five brothers and four sisters. No one from her family went to school in Tibet. She left Tibet in March 1996 in order to attend the TCV in India.

Testimony "The reason that no one of our family went to school was that the school fees were too high for my parents. The lobchung in our village cost 200 yuan a month. My parents could have never afforded that. I know that the school in our village was a schungtsug school because our neighbours' child went to that school. She told me that the general teaching language was Chinese at that school.

" In my village there are about 15 families and each of them has between 4 and 15 children. Only a few children from our village went to the school; in general it was just too expensive for most of the children. Our neighbours' child told me that sometimes she was punished by her teachers. They made her stand on a wall while holding heavy bricks in her arms and she had to stay like that for about one hour. I have seen her standing on that wall with the heavy bricks on her arms.

"Sometimes there was an inspection by the Chinese soldiers at night. They would fire their guns in the air and if anyone was walking around after that they would be considered a suspect - suspected of dealing in Tibetan freedom policies. Even the visit of one family member to another family could result in being put in prison. My parents were forced to work by the Chinese government. When my parents had to work for the Chinese, they were gone for a whole day. My mother was forced to work on a farm but I do not know where my father had to work for the Chinese.

"Never ever has any Chinese authority told me or my brothers and sisters or other children of our village that it was compulsory for us to attend a school.

Case # 25
Name : Anonymous (A25)
Age : 13 years
Sex : Female
Region : Amdo
Number of school years in Tibet : 6 years
Date of interview : April 21, 1997
Place of interview : TCV Dharamsala, India

Case History In May 1996 she left Tibet because of lack of opportunities to learn Tibetan. Her parents told her that it would be better for her to leave and to start learning Tibetan in a TCV in India. Her parents, who still live in Tibet, sell clothes in their shop.

Testimony "I went to a Chinese government school in my village for 6 years. In my class there were 40 students of whom one was Chinese. Most of our teachers were Chinese and the main teaching language was Chinese. We had Tibetan language class two periods a week but even in the Tibetan language classes we had to speak Chinese.

"I was able to follow the lessons in Chinese but my knowledge of Chinese was not good enough to pass all the exams in Chinese. As a result of having failed Chinese I had to repeat class 3 and class 5 of primary school. Although I was very good in all the other subjects my Chinese was not good enough. Sometimes my father would teach me some Tibetan during my holidays.

"I did not have any subjects related to Tibetan history, culture or religion. The subjects for our Tibetan language classes came directly from Chinese books, translated into Tibetan. I would have liked to learn something about Tibetan culture which is why I came to the TCV in India.

"After primary school I probably would not have been admitted to a middle school because my Chinese was not good enough. In order to pass the entrance exam for the middle school one has to be very good in Chinese. The school fees that my parents had to pay were quite low but they also had to pay for lots of extra things like chairs, books or broken windows. Altogether my parents had to pay around 250 yuan a year.

"I felt generally discriminated by the teachers compared to the Chinese students who came from rich families. It was one hour walking from my house to the school and during the Winter when I was late for school the teacher made me kneel down for one hour in the snow. The food that we got from our parents looked quite poor and sometimes the Chinese students snatched our food away.

"If we had bad exam results the teachers would beat us up. He used a long, thick stick to hit us on our hands until they had swollen up. The teachers also made us jump around the school for 5 or 6 rounds. Regularly we had to pull our pants down to be hit on our behinds.

"I felt indoctrinated at school, because it was always Mao and Li Peng this and Deng Xiaoping that. Always stories of their lives and how great they were. Every Monday morning we had to sing the Chinese national anthem. The singing of the anthem started from grade one. At that time I did not know the Chinese national anthem at all and for this the teacher forced me to stretch out my lips and then he would hit my lips with a stick. We also had to wear red scarves when we went to school and so I would tie it a bit loose and then lose it at a certain time. My mother used to scold me when I lost my red scarf. Sometimes there was an announcement at school that on a certain day there would be a school assembly about Li Peng and then we were made to stay longer at school and listen to more stories telling us how great Li Peng was."

Case # 27
Name : Anonymous (A 27)
Age : 13
Sex : Female
Region : Lhasa
Number of school years in Tibet : 4 years
Date of interview : April 21, 1997
Place of interview : TCV, Dharamsala, India

Case History She was sent by her parents to India because they thought that she should get a good education, which was in their eyes not possible in China. Although her parents both have jobs they earn only 400 yuan a month. She left Tibet in June 1996 is now studying at the Tibetan Children's Village in Dharamsala.

Testimony "For four years I visited a zhungtsug school in Tibet. Eighty percent of the teachers were Chinese. From class one to class six the students were divided up into Chinese and Tibetan classes. My subjects were Chinese, Tibetan and maths. In the first two grades maths was taught in Tibetan. When I entered school I did not speak any Chinese and in the Chinese language class they only taught us little words. So when I entered grade three I only spoke a little Chinese. Still the maths class was held in Chinese. I did not understand anything that the Chinese teacher said and so could only sit idle in class and wait for the class to finish. As a consequence I used to fail all of my maths tests. The teacher did not do anything to change the situation of the Tibetans. He just said that it was good luck for the students who spoke Chinese and that it was bad luck for those who did not speak any Chinese. In Chinese class I just passed. In Tibetan I was quite good. Today, in the TCV, I am taught maths in Tibetan, and I like it a lot.

"We had no classes about Tibetan culture or history. In our Tibetan book all the stories were about Mao and his great doings. There was nothing about Tibet, the Dalai Lama or our history. The fact that I had to learn so much about Mao made me feel awkward; I knew that Mao was not a good man and that he had done a lot of cruel things to the Tibetans, but I had to learn these things anyway. In school we had to repeat those lies word for word or we were punished. Once in a while our Tibetan teacher taught us a little about Tibet, but he was very afraid and made us promise that we would not talk to anyone about this. Once in a while I read a Tibetan book about great Tibetan men and Tibetan kings but I had to hide these books because if I was caught with these books both myself and the author would have been punished severely.

"The Chinese teachers taught the Chinese classes better than the Tibetan classes. The Chinese teachers taught always in Chinese and of course the Chinese students understood the teacher much better than we did. Also, when the Chinese students did not understand something, they could ask the teacher questions and the teacher would repeat what he had said to the students. When the teacher spoke Chinese in our classroom, most of the students did not understand him. Yet no one dared to ask him questions for fear of punishment and the teachers never repeated anything to the Tibetan classes. Naturally the Tibetans failed more often than the Chinese and the Chinese teacher would then say that he did not understand why the Tibetan students could not understand such simple things. He also said that the Chinese were more intelligent than the Tibetans.

"When we did not do our homework properly, the Chinese teacher would scold us until late at night. When we returned home we were very tired and naturally we were not always able to learn our lessons for the following day. The next morning the teacher asked us about our lessons. When we did not know them the teacher took some bottles and crushed them down into little pieces of glass and put these pieces of glass on the floor of the classroom. He then made me, or a group of us, kneel down in front of the class in the broken glass and walk around on our knees for the whole period of 45 minutes. Sometimes only one student had to do this, sometimes almost all of the class. Back then I was eight years old. Afterwards I had little pieces of glass stuck under my skin so I had to go to the doctor.

"The school fee was 150 yuan a year but we also had to give the teachers presents. Sometimes my mother went to school and gave the teachers a whole cartoon of some alcohol. The teachers could not force us to give these presents but if we did not give them then the teacher would target us and we would be made to be unhappy in school."

Case # 29
Name : Anonymous (A 29)
Age : 14 years
Sex : Male
Region : Lhasa
Number of school years in Tibet : 5 years
Date of interview : April 23, 1997
Place of interview :Reception, Dharamsala

Case History He left Tibet in February 1997. His father, a businessman, and his mother, a housewife, both still live in Tibet. He has two brothers and one cousin who his parents also care for. His parents said they had too many children and could not afford the high school fees. So when they could no longer pay for his schooling they told him to leave Tibet. His parents also did not want him to receive his education under Chinese rule and told him to go to the TCV in India so that he would later be able to help his younger brothers.

Testimony "I went to one of the good schools in Lhasa for five years. In our class we had 62 students, all Tibetan, and in our school there was one Chinese teacher and the rest were Tibetan. In my class the general teaching language was Tibetan. I had subjects like maths, Chinese, Tibetan, calisthenics and music. In my Tibetan language classes I never had any subjects related to Tibetan history, culture or religion.

"When the teachers went on their tea break, most of them did not come back to class after the break. In class we had to wear a red scarf around our neck and my parents had to pay extra school fees in order that I would have this scarf. Officially my parents had to pay 120 yuan for my school fees per month, but there were lots of extra costs for which my parents also had to pay, such as my exam papers, brooms, uniform and stationery. All these extra costs amounted to about 300 - 400 yuan extra per 2 to 3 months. The school fees were just too expensive for my parents. They could not afford it.

"During the music lessons we had to sing more Chinese than Tibetan songs. We were made to sing texts like 'Long live Communist China' or 'The teachers are good people and they are here to help us'. Most of the Tibetan students did not sing these songs in class and we would be punished by the teachers, even the Tibetan teachers. They hit us on our backs and heads with wooden sticks.

"When Deng Xiaopeng died, the teacher put his picture in front of the class and told us that we had to mourn the death of the great Deng Xiaopeng. We were told that we had to cry in class but, when most of us did not cry, the teacher hit us badly with a wooden stick. A day later the teachers told all the students that we had to attend a big assembly at the central place in our village, organised in order to let the people grieve for the death of Deng Xiaopeng. Most of the Tibetan students did not go to this meeting and for this we were badly punished by our teachers. The teachers knew if we had been at Deng's memorial and those who had not gone were really beaten up. I was among those who did not go to the assembly and the teacher hit me and my friend so badly for this that I had a cut on my head and had to be hospitalised for two days."

Case # 34
Name : Anonymous (A34)
Age : 17 years
Sex : Female
Region : Amdo
Number of school years in Tibet : 10 years
Date of interview : April 28, 1997
Place of interview : TCV Bir, India

Case History She was 14 years old when she left Tibet in July 1994. Her parents are nomads who live in Tibet. She attended a Chinese school in Tibet for ten years but when she wanted to go to Lhasa to pursue further education the Chinese authorities made it impossible for her to sit the entrance exam. She left Tibet because there was no chance for her to study any further and she had heard about the TCVs in India.

Testimony "I went to school in Tibet for ten years; six years of primary school and four years of middle school. I was the only Tibetan student in my class and in both of my schools the teaching language was Chinese. The primary school and middle school were in the same building. Our school had 2000 students and 150 teachers and most of the students and teachers were Chinese.

"I understand Chinese very well and I think that Tibetan students have the same chances to study the Chinese language as the Chinese students do. In my school the Chinese teachers treated the Tibetan and Chinese students in an equal way. I never received any lessons about Tibet or my Tibetan background. The Chinese teachers wanted us to be Chinese, so they treated us like Chinese.

"For the primary school I had to pay 150 yuan a month, plus I had to buy my own stationery. In the middle school I paid 125 yuan a month and bought my own note books but the textbooks were provided by the school. Children of Chinese officials had to pay half the price.

"I never felt indoctrinated during the lessons, because I never realised that there could be any other explanation other than that of my teacher. I always trusted my teacher. In school no one told me anything about Tibetan culture, history or religion and my parents also never told me anything about my Tibetan background.

"In school everyone wore the Chinese school uniform and the red scarf. I liked going to my school. After school time the school organised many Chinese games or other activities. I remember very well that I danced for Mao Tse Tung's birthday party and really liked doing that. During some weekends our school took care of the Chinese orphans in the village.

"I remember that when I was about 10 years old my teacher asked me to go home and see if there were any pictures of the Dalai Lama hanging in our house. I couldn't find any and had to tell the teacher the result of my search.

"Problems arose as I wanted to attend further education. The Chinese authorities did not allow me to participate in the entrance exam for a school in Lhasa. They told me that I could not sit the entrance exam because my parents were Tibetan nomads and they did not have a ration card. I felt that they treated me unfairly as many Chinese students whose marks were not as good as mine could continue with their studies. They were allowed to do the entrance exam because they had Chinese relatives in school or because their parents were rich and paid bribes to the school. The marks did not matter for further studies; it was the money and the connections that counted.

"When I came to the TCV in India I learned for the first time things about Tibet and the Chinese occupation. I know now that the Chinese influenced my thoughts. I really believed that China was the greatest country and that Mao Tse Tung was a great man."

Case # 42
Name : Anonymous (A 42)
Age : 21 years
Sex : Male
Region : Amdo
Number of school years in Tibet : 10 years
Date of interview : April 29, 1997
Place of interview : TCV Bir, India

Case History He left Tibet when he was 18 years old. His parents are farmers and they live in Tibet. He went to a Chinese primary school for five years and to a Chinese middle school for another five years. He left Tibet because he realised that there were no chances for Tibetan students to receive Tibetan higher education.

Testimony "The primary school was a Chinese government school with 15 Chinese teachers and about 1100 students of whom 1000 were Chinese. I received lessons in Chinese, Maths, Chinese history and science and all the teaching was conducted in Chinese. I never had any Tibetan in my school. The classroom looked okay; everyone had his own table and chair. The teachers came to class regularly. I did not like the Chinese school because they never explained anything about Tibetan history. They wanted the Tibetans to become like the Chinese and therefore they treated us just like the Chinese students.

"For five years I went to middle school and again all the lessons took place in Chinese. My Chinese language was good enough to follow all the lessons. The Chinese students had a better chance of entering the middle school because they had relatives who worked at the school. I have never been allowed to wear my Tibetan clothes in school. In primary school I had to wear the red scarf, but in middle school I had to exchange my red scarf for a red badge with a yellow star.

"I had to pay for my books and food, for my table and chair and for the brooms in the classroom. The official school fees for primary and middle school were about 200 yuan in summer and 200 yuan in winter. In middle school, because of all the extra costs, it was about 700 yuan for one year. I also had to pay bribes to my teachers. I gave them cards, flowers, meat and butter and for the teachers' holiday we had to pay 90 yuan each. I had to buy my own school uniform.

"Once the teachers punished us because we had visited a Tibetan monastery. They made us stand outside the school building from nine o'clock in the morning until six o'clock at night without any food or drink. It was very sunny and warm at that time and so it was very hard for us to stand in the bright sun all day. Luckily no one lost consciousness.

"The teachers told us that China is the power country and that China is a good country. Once I asked my teacher to explain to us more about Tibetan history and he got so mad at me for asking this question that he hit me with a big stick on my legs and head. If you failed the political questions asked in class you would not progress to the higher class. My parents also refused to explain anything to me about Tibet because they were afraid that the Chinese would get mad. My parents told me that the things to occupy myself with were not Tibetan politics. Politics was too dangerous; I had to be satisfied with talking about clothes, food and yaks.

"On Sundays the school told all the students to clean the teacher's room or the factory in the village or the streets. If you did not do it you would be severely punished.

"Because I intended to go to college and because my marks were high enough, I got the opportunity to study in China. In China I visited different colleges but I didn't like any of them. The buildings were all so high and the streets were so clean. One boy in my class went to a Chinese college but I chose Lhasa for my higher education. In Lhasa I saw that all the signs from the shops and restaurants had been changed from Tibetan letters into Chinese characters. I was lucky because I knew the Chinese language and so I had a chance for a higher salary. If one only knows the Tibetan language, you can bet on it that your salary will stay low.

"I spent two months in Lhasa. I did not go directly to college as I preferred to learn more about Tibetan politics. In Lhasa I heard about the education facilities for Tibetans at the TCV in India. I realised that my chances for further education in Tibetan matters were not available in Tibet and that I had to go to India for that."

Case # 43
Name : Anonymous (A 43)
Age : 19 years
Sex : Female
Region : Amdo
Number of school years in Tibet : 8 years
Date of interview : April 29, 1997
Place of interview : TCV Bir, India

Case History She left Tibet in April 1994 because she wanted to know more about democracy and to improve her chances for education about Tibetan matters. Her parents are both farmers and they still live in Tibet. She went to school in Tibet for eight years - five years in primary school and three years in middle school.

Testimony "My primary school was a Chinese government school. The school had 200 Tibetan students and 37 teachers of whom 22 were Chinese. I received lessons in Tibetan, maths and Chinese. The main teaching language in school was Chinese. I did not understand the Chinese language well enough and so I had to ask the teacher again and again. If most of the Tibetans did not understand his explanation in Chinese he used to scold us, calling us 'dirty Tibetans' or 'stupid Tibetans' because we did not understand Chinese. We would ask no more questions then because we were afraid that he would punish us.

"We received no teachings about Tibet's history or culture. All the explanations were about China's ancient history and in our classroom pictures of China's leaders hung above the black board. About two times a week the teachers did not come to class but we received no explanation as to why they did not come.

"I attended the middle school for three years. My Chinese was not good enough to pass the entrance exam but I was still able to enter the middle school. The chances for the Chinese students to enter a good middle school were better. For them the Chinese language is their mother tongue; for the Tibetans the Chinese language is a second language.

"In the middle school there were 110 teachers of whom 100 were Chinese. My middle school was a boarding school for Tibetan students only. Another middle school for Chinese students was close to our middle school. The buildings of the Chinese school were better as was their food and clothing. In our school we received Chinese food and often I found worms in my food. The facilities in our Tibetan middle school were so poor that the Tibetan students decided to demonstrate. We organised school marches through the village and, for this, the Chinese authorities closed the school for two months. One Chinese teacher told us that we should not demonstrate because 'we were the same as the Chinese'.

"During the lessons I felt that the teachers only told us good things about China. Lots of teachings were about Mao Zedong and 'being a communist is good' and 'you have democracy in Tibet'. I did not believe all these things.

"For my primary education my parents had to pay 200 yuan a year. For the notebooks, pens and ink my parents had to pay an extra 70 yuan a year. For my middle school my parents paid 600 yuan a year and another 100 yuan a year for my notebooks, dictionaries, pen and ink. Sometimes I also gave greeting cards and scarves to my teachers because I wanted to please them.

"The school told us that we had to clean the homes of Chinese families in our village. Sometimes we had to wash the clothes of our teachers. This happened on about two Sundays in each month."

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Last updated: 29-Sept-97