Tibet is one of the places in the world with the greatest linguistic diversity. However, this diversity is in danger of extinction. It is not common to hear from this, but in the “tongue war” in Tibet, people are also dying.
Three days after being released from prison in December, Gonpo Namgyal died.
A leader of a Tibetan village named Gonpo Namgyal.
When his body was being prepared for Tibetan funeral rituals, marks were found that indicated that it had been brutally tortured in prison.
O crime What had committed? Gonpo Namgyal had been part of a campaign to protected the tibetan language in China.
Gonpo Namgyal is the victim of a slow conflict that has been going on for almost 75 years since China invaded Tibet in the mid -twentieth century. Language has been at the center of this conflict.
Tongue war
The Tibetans have always worked to protect the Tibetan language and resisted efforts to impose the Mandarin Chinese.
However, Tibetan children are losing their tongue through registration in state boarding schools, where they are educated almost exclusively in Chinese Mandarin. Normally, Tibetan is taught only a few times a week, which is not enough to keep the tongue.
In a study, in a book in 2024, Gerald RocheProfessor of Linguistics, La Trobe University (Australia), reveals unique information about the struggle of other minority languages in Tibet that receive much less attention.
Roche now writes in how his research shows that language policies in Tibet are surprisingly complex and moved by a subtle violence, perpetuated not only by Chinese authorities but also by other Tibetans.
In 2008, the Tibetans launched a massive protest movement against Chinese rule shortly before the Beijing Olympic Games.
These protests led to harsh repressions by the government, including mass arrests, increased surveillance and restrictions on freedom of circulation and expressions of Tibetan identity.
These restrictions focused above all on language and religion.
Years of excitement were followed, marked by more manifestations and individual acts of sacrifice. Since 2009, more than 150 Tibetans have set themselves fire to protest against Chinese rule.
Tibetan culture under attack
Tibet is a linguistically diverse place. In addition to Tibetan, about 60 other languages in the region. About 4% of Tibetans (about 250,000 people) speak a minority language.
However, Government policy obliges all Tibetans to learn and use the Mandarin Chinese.
Those who speak only Tibetan have more difficulty finding work and are confronted with Discrimination and even violence by the dominant ethnic group He.
However, the support for the teaching of Tibetan language has been reduced: The government has recently banned students from having private tibetan classes or tutors during school holidays.
All Tibet Linguistic Minorities need to learn and use Mandarin. But many also need to learn Tibetan to communicate with other Tibetans: classmates, teachers, doctors, bureaucrats or bosses.
Everything (except the mandarin) is threatened
Em Rebgongwhere Gerald Roche made his investigation, the local inhabitants speak a language they call Manegacha.
Increasingly, this language is being replaced by Tibetan: about a third of the Families who speak Manegacha are now teaching Tibetan to their children (who also have to learn Mandarin).
The government refuses to give any opportunities for the use and learning of minority languages such as Manegacha. It also tolerates the constant discrimination and violence against mannegacha speakers by other Tibetans.
These are causing the collapse of linguistic diversity throughout Tibet.
As these minority languages are lost, people’s mental and physical health suffer and their social connections and community identities are destroyed.
Why is this important?
Tibetan resistance to Chinese rule dates back to the invasion of the popular liberation army in the early 1950s.
When this resistance movement became global.
Os governments around the world continued to support Tibetan self -determination and combating Chinese disinformation about Tibet, such as the US Congress approval resolved Tibet in 2024.
However, external efforts to support the Tibetan struggle are failing to some of the most vulnerable people: those who speak minority languages.
If Tibetans fail to speak Manegacha and other minority languages, this will contribute to the Chinese government’s efforts to erase Tibetan identity and culture.
Even though Tibetan language survives in China, the loss of one of Tibet’s minority languages would be a victory for the Communist Party in the conflict that began 75 years ago.
