Abstract
This article offers the first overview of the recent emergence of Tibetan Sign Language (TibSL) in Lhasa, capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), China. Drawing on short anthropological fieldwork, in 2007 and 2014, with people and organisations involved in the formalisation and promotion of TibSL, the author discusses her findings within the nine-fold UNESCO model for assessing linguistic vitality and endangerment. She follows the adaptation of this model to assess signed languages by the Institute of Sign Languages and Deaf Studies (iSLanDS) at the University of Central Lancashire. The appraisal shows that TibSL appears to be between “severely” and “definitely” endangered, adding to the extant studies on the widespread phenomenon of sign language endangerment. Possible future influences and developments regarding the vitality and use of TibSL in Central Tibet and across the Tibetan plateau are then discussed and certain additions, not considered within the existing assessment model, suggested. In concluding, the article places the situation of TibSL within the wider circumstances of minority (sign) languages in China, Chinese Sign Language (CSL), and the post-2008 movement to promote and use “pure Tibetan language”.
Highlights
One afternoon in the early summer of 2007, my friend Sonam and I rode on a busy public bus out of downtown Lhasa
In Tibetan Sign Language (TibSL), the sign for a Chinese person, for instance, is one’s hand forming a shield in front of the head, presumably indicating the caps worn by state police and military personnel, ever present in the city since the arrival of People’s Liberation Army (PLA) troops in 1951
Whatever terms we find used in the TibSL materials, or in use by Tibetan signers themselves, the majority of even highly-educated hearing Tibetans with whom I spoke were unaware of a sophisticated sign language currently in use among deaf Tibetans in Lhasa, even if some themselves have deaf relatives
Summary
One afternoon in the early summer of 2007, my friend Sonam and I rode on a busy public bus out of downtown Lhasa. I would say that I am more attuned than most to a visual communication style This first period of research was complemented by a follow-up visit in 2014, when I met with the new leadership of the TDA and the incoming generation of TibSL teachers, as well as the Handicap International (HI) team. They updated me on many issues and shared a range of advocacy materials, photographs, reports and current policy documents and practical information. I was able to pick up more TibSL during this visit
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