September 30, 2021
Tibetan homes have been torn down for reconstruction whilst 1,216 children relocated to distant boarding schools
In early September this year, Chinese authorities in Matoe county (Ch:Maduo, Tib:རྨ་སྟོད་རྫོང་།) of Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in eastern Tibet started demolishing Lungkya monastery (Tib:ལུང་སྐྱ་དགོན།), an unidentified nunnery and a number of Tibetan homes as part of infrastructure reconstruction following the 7.4 magnitude earthquake that happened on 22 May 2021. The demolitions are being carried out regardless of whether or not the houses were damaged by the earthquake. All the monks, nuns and residents were forced to temporarily take shelter in the newly built camps with steel roofs.
A source from the area confided that “the demolition of Lungkya monastery and nunnery started a month ago but the authorities have still not yet given any information about when it will end and when the reconstruction would be completed. They have only told us about rebuilding a better monastery and its assembly hall.”
Reconstruction of houses in Matoe County
Explaining further on the uncertainty of their situation, the source added, “Local residents worry about how long they might remain under the steel-roof shelters. The main concern of local people is that they are uncertain if the Chinese authorities would reconstruct the monastery and Tibetan homes after everything is torn down. Many homes were neither damaged nor affected by the earthquake but the authorities forced the residents of those unaffected homes to move to the camps along with others and even proceeded with demolishing the houses.”
The local government authorities have warned local residents not to share or post any pictures, videos or updated information about the demolition and activities currently underway on social media for security reasons.
Raise your hands
Opening ceremony of the first campus for the transitional placement of Primary and Secondary students of Matoe County
In addition to this restriction placed on information sharing, the Chinese authorities held a public meeting regarding the relocation of all the students from the affected areas of Matoe County (Tib:རྨ་སྟོད་རྫོང་།), Darlag county (Tib:དར་ལག་རྫོང་།), Machu county (Tib:རྨ་ཆུ་རྫོང་།) to Chinese-government-run schools in Xining city (Tib:ཟི་ལིང་གྲོང་ཁྱེར།), Golog County (Tib:མགོ་ལོག་ཁུལ་ཐོག) and Zogan Rawar township (Tib:མཛོ་རྒན་རྭ་བར་གྲོང་རྡལ།), the source explained. At the meeting, parents were instructed to raise their hands if they accepted the relocation as arranged by the government. However, they found themselves in a situation where no option to refuse was at their disposal.
Most of the Chinese state media’s coverage in English of Matoe county since the earthquake is replete with a particular emphasis on school children: students continuing their classes in disaster relief tents, celebrating children’s day a week after the earthquake, and school reopening in their transitional schools. Tibetan parents in the region however remain concerned about the lack of education in Tibetan in those new boarding schools. The so-called Qinghai government has since 2010 implemented Model 2 of bilingual education which prioritises the national language [Putonghua] as the medium of instruction in classes with minority pupils.
Matoe County’s first transitional post-earthquake school campus
Qinghai Provincial website reported on 2 September 2021 that 1772 students from the earthquake-hit counties were relocated to six different schools: Machen County Nationalities Middle School (Tib:རྨ་ཆེན་རྫོང་མི་རིགས་སློབ་འབྲིང་།), Three Rivers Middle School of Tsongon Province (Tib:མཚོ་སྔོན་ཞིང་ཆེན་གཙང་གསུམ་ཆུ་འགོའི་མི་རིགས་སློབ་འབྲིང་།), Vocational Training School of Golog County (Tib: མགོ་ལོག་ཁུལ་ལས་རིགས་ལག་རྩལ་སློབ་གྲྭའི་སློབ་ཁུལ་རྙིང་པ།), School of special education of Golog (Tib:མགོ་ལོག་ཁུལ་དམིགས་བསལ་སློབ་གསོའི་སློབ་གྲྭ།) and Zogyan Rawa Township School (Tib:་མཛོ་རྒན་ར་བ་གྲོང་རྡལ་གྱི་སྐུར་སློབ་གྲྭ) and Boarding School of Matoe County (Tib: རྨ་སྟོད་རྫོང་མི་རིགས་ཞག་སྡོད་ལམ་ལུགས་ཀྱི་སློབ་འབྲིང་།). The same report cited that around 400 students were relocated to Vocational Training School of Golog County. Another state news report on QQ and a video report published in a Golog specific Tibetan news channel confirmed that 1216 students from Matoe County were relocated. The latter report mentioned that the students will be living there for two to three years.
