Tenzin Nyidon
DHARAMSHALA, Dec. 6: Dr. Lobsang Monlam, the founder and CEO of the Monlam Tibetan IT Research Center, testified on Thursday at a hearing of the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) in Washington, D.C. The hearing, titled “The Preservation of Memory: Combating the CCP’s Historical Revisionism and Erasure of Culture,” was chaired by Representative Christopher Smith and co-chaired by Senator Jeff Merkley.
In his testimony, Dr. Monlam addressed the grave challenges facing the Tibetan language and culture, both within Tibet and among the global Tibetan diaspora. He pointed to recent developments, such as the closure of Tibetan-centric schools like Ragya Ganjong Sherig Norbuling and the relocation of students to state-run institutions, as evidence of the Chinese government’s ongoing policies of cultural assimilation.
“In Tibet, the policy of cultural assimilation of Tibetans by the Chinese government is systematically undermining Tibetan language and cultural identity,” he stated. “One of the most concerning aspects of this is the imposition of Mandarin as the primary language of instruction in schools—even in those that claim to offer bilingual education. Additionally, an estimated 80% of Tibetan children are sent to state-run boarding schools where Mandarin is prioritised, further disconnecting them from their cultural heritage.”
Dr. Monlam also shed light on the difficulties faced by Tibetans in exile, particularly younger generations born outside of traditional Tibetan communities. “Many young Tibetans, born and raised outside of the communities in exile established for Tibetans, lack regular exposure to their native language, hindering their ability to learn and appreciate it. Limited post-education opportunities as well as opportunities for higher education in Tibetan further compel them to rely on other languages, increasing the distance from their cultural roots,” he explained.
He emphasised the diminishing Tibetan population, both within Tibet and abroad, has further compounded these challenges. While community-led efforts, such as Tibetan language schools, monasteries, and cultural institutions, are working to preserve the language, these initiatives often struggle due to limited funding and resources.
Dr. Monlam further highlighted the ongoing suppression of Tibetan culture within Tibet, which he described as a key factor contributing to the erosion of traditions and cultural disintegration. He also acknowledged the resilience of the Tibetan exile community, which has made notable efforts to safeguard Tibetan culture and language through educational institutions, the Central Tibetan Administration’s policies, and various grassroots initiatives.
Despite these efforts, Dr. Monlam called for more modern, strategic, and comprehensive tools to support Tibetan education, cultural preservation, and global engagement. He highlighted the work of the Monlam Tibetan IT Research Center, which has been instrumental in developing technology to preserve the Tibetan language. The organization has compiled the Grand Tibetan Dictionary, the most extensive Tibetan lexicon to date, and developed 42 software applications, including advanced tools for optical character recognition (OCR), machine translation, and AI-driven language models.
“These ground-breaking technologies have achieved remarkable success, garnering over millions of usages and effectively bridging linguistic and technological barriers within Tibet and the global diaspora,” Dr. Monlam said. “Looking ahead, the Monlam organization has an ambitious vision for the future. We are actively developing a foundational Tibetan/Culture-focused Large Language Model (LLM). As part of our commitment to education and ethical AI development, we are exploring the creation of an AI model based on His Holiness the XIVth Dalai Lama. This model could be used to develop educational resources, promote conflict resolution, and foster ethical decision-making in AI systems.”
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Occupied Tibet is going through a grim era of colonisation, assimilation and total obliteration of Tibet’s unique, culture, religion and language! The Chinese communists are Han chauvinists! Under the cloak of stability, they are eradicating everything that is Tibetan including the historical name “Tibet “ by substituting it with a grotesque Chinese nickname! Whether it’s the monasteries, schools or colleges, they are weeding out any semblance of Tibetan and Tibetan-ness and instead impose Chinese culture, Chinese language, communist ideology and Chinese values! They call this creating in the image of the Chinese. This is exactly what the white European colonisers did to the victims of colonisation in Asia, Africa and West Asia. Just as the white colonisers looked down upon the natives as savages, the Chinese have looked down on Tibetans through out their history! This is in the DNA of all imperialists! The Europeans called their native colonised people “noble savages” while the Chinese call the Tibetans “Barbarians”! The white European imperialists have learned their lesson and are apologising to the indigenous people for the crimes they committed against them. President Joe Biden has recently apologised to the Native Americans for the atrocities the US committed owing to the colonial boarding schools the US Governments ran in order to assimilate indigenous children 150 years ago. President Joe Biden described them as “one of the most horrific chapters in American history”. Yet, the Chinese communist Party is committing the same crime on the children of Tibet in the 21st century by ripping off children from their parents to be indoctrinated into communist ideology of violence and violent Chinese communist culture which has no respect for human life! Most of the white colonialists have realised the horrific human tragedy and anguish they inflicted on the natives they forcibly and uprooted their cultures! So they have the decency to apologise for their unforgivable mistakes but not the Chinese communist party! This violent regime has ransacked and pillaged 6000 monasteries, the repository of Tibet’s priceless ancient cultural heritage and continues to destroy holy shrines, monasteries and statues to this very day. The Tibetan monasteries are like Notre Dame to the French people! They are the citadel of Tibetan civilisation! Yet the CCP has no remorse for its crimes against the Tibetan people and their nation! That is why, Frank Morris, the former editor of Indian express has said, “yellow colonialism is much more sinister and dangerous than European imperialists”! Just like the European imperialist colonisers, the Chinese have been imperialists through out history! They looked down on their victims and created a narrative to conquer them in order to “civilise” them! The Chinese have looked to Tibet as “barbarous land where men drank blood and Lamas made drums from human skin and horns from virgin’s thigh bones; where serfs were treated worse than animals, where the moral standard were so low that brothers and even fathers and sons shared a wife and sisters shared a husband”!!! The best Tibetan meal according to Chinese propaganda was “widows or prostitutes menstrual blood in a bowl made from the skull of of an illegitimate child (containing) hearts and livers and intestines”!!! These are words of Chinese woman Sun Shuyun, who seems to have sympathised with the Tibetan plight. This was the Chinese communist propaganda for years in China about the “backwardness” of Tibet and the “barbarism” of the Tibetans and how the Chinese communists were “civilising” the “barbaric” Tibetans! All Chinese people to this very day belief in the CCP propaganda with extremely few exceptions! The above quotes are from Chinese traveller Sun Shuyua’s book A YEAR IN TIBET . Again in the the words of the author: “In primary school, we learnt how China gave benefit of superior culture to Tibet. In 641 CE a Chinese princess named Wencheng married Songtsen Gampo and took her advanced knowledge of medicine and medical equipment, astrology, plants and seeds, brocade silk, craftsman, musicians, scholars, Buddhist scriptures, and a statue of Buddha and Buddhism itself. In the most exaggerated versions of the tale, her beauty and influence won the king’s heart and he decided to built the Potala palace for her, In other words, most good things Tibet has, it owes to her, a mere sixteen year old girl”. This is how the Chinese communists distorted history and facts to create a narrative that Tibet is nothing without China illusion! Those who are aware of Tibet’s history know this is pure fabrication and has not a shred of truth. Besides, in the seventh century, when there was hardly any roads and with such a vast distance, to take such a number of people with plants is logistically impossible and is beyond ludicrous! The story is copied from Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan’s eternal monument, the Taj Mahal, to his beloved wife Nur Jahan which still stands today in Agra! Today, we are seeing the complete destruction of Tibet under the same Chinese chauvinism that was responsible for the illegal occupation, systematic destruction of Tibets cultural heritage and it has now gone a step further to destroy our language and the very name of TIBET! Recoding and compiling Tibet’s treasure of literature, poetry, cultural heritage and language preservation by having dictionaries are to be applauded but it is only a means to an end. Language has to be spoken, written and used in every day transaction. Without a vibrant verbal communication of the language, it dies a slow death like Sanskrit. It goes the same with the Dharma. Unless and until, we have students who study Buddhism and practice them, just having copies of the བཀའ་འགྱུར་དང་བསྟན་འགྱུར་ in our alters will not save བསྟན་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་བསྟན་པ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་ the holy Dharma. As it were, it is a bounden duty upon every Tibetan to learn our language both reading and writing and also teach children little tips on Dharma from childhood. Aquaint them with our culture by taking them to our monasteries and teach them how to prostrate and pray to the Holy Buddha. We are an endangered species under foreign occupation where upon the enemy is hell-bent to obliterate our race! That is why, it’s important to keep our racial purity at a time of great peril of total extinction of the Tibetan race and its unique culture, language, customs and religion!!!