This week on Druktalk Podcast, ‘The intelligence Tibet’, Drukthar welcome Dr. Gyal Lo, a Tibetan educationist and the author of Social Structuration in Tibetan Society: Education, Society, and Spirituality. Now based in Canada, advocating Tibetan education policy in Tibet, particularly focus on the colonial boarding school in Tibet. On this episode, we discussed China’s education policy in Tibet and its impacts on Tibetan language, culture, and identity.
China’s education policy in Tibet
What is colonial boarding school?
What are the challenges of education policy implementation in Tibet.
Comparative discussion of education policy in and outside of Tibet
Prospects of Tibetan education policy, particularly focus on the Tibetan language and identity.
About Dr. Gyal Lo
Dr. Gyal Lo was born in Amdo, Tibet, or what China calls Gansu Province, and attended school in his home region and then did a Master’s Degree in Tibetan Language and Culture Department at Northwestern University for Nationalities in Lanzhou, China. In 1995, he was appointed Assistant Professor in the same department, where he taught for the next decade and undertook extensive research into Tibetan education. After leaving to obtain a PhD in Educational Sociology at the University of Toronto, he returned to China but was refused employment at his former department due to political sensitivities over his time studying in the West. He was then appointed a full professor at the Yunnan Normal University Institute for Studies in Education from 2017-2020.
Dr. Gyal Lo left China on December 31, 2020 and has decided not to return because it has become too risky to make a meaningful contribution to the field of Tibetan education, and in order to alert the international community to the dire threats posed to the collective well being of the Tibetan people and society and the survival of Tibet’s language, religion, and culture. Dr. Gyal Lo is the author of Social Structuration in Tibetan Society: Education, Society, and Spirituality (Lexington Books, 2016).