Tsering Dhundup
DHARAMSHALA, May 28: In an alarmingrevelation, over 30,000 Tibetan farmers and herders in their ancestral lands in the high altitude regions of Tibet have been forcefully relocated between 2019 to 2022 under what is described as “population colonisation policy” by Chinese authorities, according to a report released by a think-tank under the exile Tibetan government on Wednesday.
The Tibet Policy Institute (TPI) under the Central Tibetan Administration’s Department of Information and International Relations released a research report, examining China’s large-scale relocation of Tibetan nomads and farmers from high-altitude regions.
The report titled “Extremely High-Altitude Ecological Relocation Projects in Tibet”, analyses the Chinese government’s programme that has relocated over 30,000 Tibetans from three counties in the Nagchu region to southern areas between 2019 and 2025.
30,364 Tibetan farmers and herders have been moved from Amdo County, Shuanghu County, and Nyima County in Nagchu to Sinpo Mountain in Gongkar County. The relocations occurred in two major phases: 4,058 people in December 2019 and 26,304 people in June 2022.
While Chinese authorities justify the program as “ecological relocation” to protect people from areas unsuitable for human habitation, the TPI report characterises it as a “population colonisation policy” that destroys traditional Tibetan nomadic identity.
At the report’s launch event, Tibetan Parliamentarian Geshe Atong Rinchen Gyaltsen highlighted the relocation program’s impact on traditional ways of life. “Children from affected areas are required to attend state-run boarding schools, while elders in nomadic families become unable to continue herding activities, effectively losing their traditional lifestyle,” he said. He noted that displaced elders often struggle to adapt to new environments, with some succumbing to alcoholism and community tensions.
The report places these relocations within a larger context of forced population movements across Tibet. According to data from Human Rights Watch, over 1.4 million Tibetans across traditional Tibetan regions have been forcibly relocated since around 2000, with nearly 2.3 million Tibetans in the so-called Tibet Autonomous Region affected by such programmes.
DIIR Secretary Karma Choeying emphasised the importance of exposing these policies to the international community. “It is extremely important to research and expose to the international community the erroneous policies that the Chinese government is implementing in Tibet,” he stated at the launch event.
Former Nagchu resident Gyaltsen Choekyi described the relocations as “part of the PRC’s larger colonisation and sinicisation policy targeting the Tibetan ethnic group,” aimed at diluting traditional Tibetan culture.
The six-month study was conducted by TPI researchers Dr. Tsewang Dorji Jeshong and Lobsang Tashi, who gathered information from government documents, non-governmental organisation reports, and local sources both inside and outside Tibet.
