Education of Tibetan refugees

Abstract

This chapter is an exploration of the Tibetan refugee community in India and their system of school education established in exile in India. It analyzes the role of the Tibetan refugee schools in perpetuating and preserving Tibetan language and culture through their curricular, pedagogical, and evaluative activities in day-to-day life in classrooms. Tibetan refugee schools confer cultural legitimacy on the knowledge of a Tibetan national identity that is a creation of the Tibetan Exile Government in India and not of present-day Tibet under the influence of the Chinese government. Preservation of traditional Tibetan culture, language and identity is regarded by the Tibetan leadership in exile as the most important duty of the refugee community in exile and the very reason for their escape and exile in India. China’s minority education in general – and Tibetan education in particular – is often viewed as a hegemonic tool for ‘sinicization’ designed to assimilate minorities. Tibetan refugee schools in India, with the tacit support of the Indian Government, have emerged as a tool for propagating ‘tibetanization’ of education and an ‘authentic’ Tibetan education with their own inclusive national identity. This chapter explores the school culture of Tibetan schools in India including elements of curriculum, pedagogy, and the lived experiences of Tibetan students nurtured in these schools in India.