Schooling for knowledge and cultural survival: Tibetan community schools in nomadic herding areas

Abstract

For children of Tibetan nomadic (drokpa) families, it is often a struggle to attend school. The long distance from home to school, irrelevance of school learning to daily life and available jobs after graduation contribute to the choice by some parents to keep their children at home for domestic work. Although some parents consider schooling in its present form a waste of time, it is nevertheless acknowledged that proficiency in Chinese and basic knowledge gained from schooling are probably essential if employment is to be sought outside the pastoral community. This case study introduces three primary community schools in the herding areas of Qinghai and Sichuan. In addition to Chinese, these schools teach Tibetan, and take traditional beliefs and cultural values into account. It is argued that recognizing rural life in remote, high‐altitude herding areas is under transition and has made Tibetan parents more open towards schooling, in particular if their children have the possibility to attend a local community school.

Keywords:

• cultural education
• institutional schooling
• bilingualism
• community engagement
• ethnic identity

Acknowledgement

This article was written while the author was an affiliate researcher at the Nordic Institute of Asian Studies (NIAS). The author wishes to thank NIAS for providing an inspiring base while working on this study.

Notes

1. Part of this study was previously presented as a paper at the Eleventh Seminar of The International Association for Tibetan Studies (IATS XI) in Bonn August/September 2006. I would like to thank DANIDA (Denmark) for a grant supporting my fieldwork in 2005.

2. Fieldtrips lasted 8 weeks in 2004 and 5 weeks in 2005 and took place on a solitary basis, with selected researched schools based on personal contacts. My position as a western woman travelling alone, with an identity of obviously having some knowledge of Tibetan culture and speaking Tibetan might have encouraged some informants to approach me in a rather unconstrained manner. While using an unofficial research methodology has the disadvantage of not being able to conduct comprehensive survey data collections, it nevertheless has the advantage that persons interviewed might feel freer to express opinions (cf. Hansen 2006). For protection of informants and projects all schools are referred to by their greater district location rather than the accurate place name, as small schools are vulnerable to public interference.

3. For an outline of the impact of politics on the pastoral system and a discussion of nomadism versus mobile pastoralism see Manderscheid (2002).

4. Lobsang Gelek is Tibetan and did periodically fieldwork in the Sethar areas between 1969 and 1994.

5. A Chinese survey claims that 9‐years of compulsory education was universalized by the end of 2002 in the eastern regions (MOE 2004). Statistical data state the level of primary schooling in China to be 92.3% (CSY 2002, tables 4–12, 2000 census).

6. A Chinese survey from 2004 accounts that 58.3% of all junior secondary school graduates in China continue to study in senior secondary schools (MOE 2004). A report from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) states that educational achievement in the eastern regions including Beijing show a illiteracy rate lower than 7% and 67% of the population have at least junior high‐school education and more than 9% have at least a junior college education. The rates are considerable lower for the western regions including Qinghai where illiteracy rates ranges from 15 to 26% and population with at least a high school education accounted for between 32 and 40%, while those with at least a junior college education accounted for 2 to 4%, and the literacy level being slightly higher for Sichuan (UNDP 2005, 57).

7. Caterpillar Fungus (Cordyceps sinensis) is called “summer‐grass, winter‐womb” (Yartsa Gunbu – dbyar rtswa) by Tibetans. Cordyceps sinensis is a parasitic fungus that attacks the larva of several moth species (Hepialus sp.), which lives in the high altitude meadows above 4000 metres in several regions of the Tibetan Plateau (Boesi 2003, 29; Winkler 2004). The mushroom has a medicinal value and is collected during May and June. During peak season a good mushroom can be sold at local markets for 15–20 rmb. (2–3 US dollars).

8. The Sershul school included in this study is a community primary school for nomad children located in Sershul County (Ch. Shiqu), Kardze (Ch. Ganzi) TAP, Sichuan.

9. The teachers mentioned that although attending middle school is compulsory most middle schools nevertheless demands an entrance exam.

10. Dzogchen (Ch. Zhuqingxiang), Dege County (Ch. Dege), Kardze (Ch. Ganzi) TAP, Sichuan.

11. Tsekhog County (Ch. Zeku), Malho (Ch. Huangnan) TAP, Qinghai.

12. Other primary “tent schools” exist in remote areas in Qinghai (CiC 2000).

13. These kinds of secular schools seem to be different from secular schools established by Tibetan Buddhist monasteries in Nepal and India, where the aim is more directed towards providing monks and nuns with secular schooling and the opportunity of earning a degree alongside religious training at the monastery until the age of 16–18 years. Thereafter monks and nuns are expected to devote their time fully to studies in Buddhist philosophy or engage in other practical duties at the monastery (Bangsbo 2004).

14. Goldstein (1998) mentions how administrative clergy at Drepung monastery in Lhasa have established a secular school, whose aim is to provide young novice monks with some secular skills should they choose to leave the monastery later in life, and further that the authorities' motive in making this concession was to prevent “a pool of potential new political recruits for the activists in the monastery”. Subjects in school are written Tibetan, some basic arithmetic and elementary religion, and later in 1995 Chinese and English are also included (Goldstein 1998, 43–51).

15. Parents were interviewed by in‐depth interviews in a rather casual manner in order to make informants feel unstrained.

16. The majority of the parents were actually illiterate and being unable to read the schoolbooks themselves, their opinion seem to depend on their children's behaviour and indication. Here I am simply referring to comments and opinions from Tibetan parents. I am aware of Janet Upton's (1999) study on the content of the curriculum at the primary level in Tibetan schools, where she argues that curriculum and school books for Tibetan children do contain a fair amount of material relevant to Tibetan cultural life. A recent study by Bass discusses newer contents of patriotic education in school textbooks, pointing out how new Tibetan language curriculum have little reference to Tibet at all (Bass 2005, 442).

17. Interview with Arthur N. Holcombe, Tibet Poverty Alleviation Fund in TAR, Lhasa August 2004.

18. The privatization of rangeland and livestock development interventions taking place in the Tibetan nomadic herding areas are fundamentally changing the traditional nature of Tibetan pastoralism (Goldstein 1996 quoted in Miller 2000, 99).

19. In his book about education in Tibet Tashi Tsering describes how most of the schools founded by his foundation are equipped with a television, although they might not have a direct electricity line or running water in the compound (Siebenschuh and Tashi Tsering 2003, 28).

20. See synopsis by Cheng Kai‐ming (1999). Action Plan for Vitalizing Education for the 21st Century) (PRC). Plan proposed by Ministry of Education, 24 December 1998. Endorsed by State Council, 13 January 1999. Centre for Research on Education in China, University of Hong Kong. http://www.hku.hk/chinaed/action_plan.htm In January 2004, the Ministry of Education promulgated the Action Plan for Revitalizing Education between 2003–2007 (East News Net, 11 January 2004).