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Research Brieng TGAP Forum 2012

Tibetan Language Policy and PracticeConcept, Experience and Challenges for the FutureMontral, Qubec, Canada

Language protection and rights constitute a core interest for Tibetans as a collective community. The reg-

ulation of language use in education, the employment market and the regional economy presents a majorchallenge to governance in contemporary Tibet.

The TGAP Forum examined the nature and implications of those challenges, both in qualitative and quanti-tative terms, at a time of growing assimilationist pressures in the region. Leading researchers, scholars andpolicy innovators from inside Tibet as well as globally were convened to deliberate language policy issuesand to assess their comparative impact across the ve administrative units of the Tibetan region.

The following research brieng was the outcome of a policy workshop held on the closing day of the TGAPForum. The policy recommendations below reect the discussions of academic ndings that took placeduring the nal day workshop. It was released in Chinese translation in the PRC on May 28, 2012.

The Tibet Governance and Practice Forum onLanguage Policy and Practice was held in Montreal,Canada, from May 19 to May 23, 2012. Hostedby McGill University and Universit du Qubec Montral (UQM), the international conference andworkshop convened scholars and researchers fromNorth America, Europe and the Peoples Republic ofChina, including Hong Kong and Macau, in a cross-disciplinary discussion of the challenges of languagepolicy and practice in the Tibetan region.

The participants in the TGAP Forum drew from adiverse range of academic elds including linguistics,socio-linguistics, education, law, sociology, linguistic

anthropology and political science. As internationalscholars representing seven countries and regionsfrom around the world, the participants brought astrong comparative perspective to the question oflanguage policy and practice in Tibet.

The forum began with an exploration of theconditions for the protection and ourishing ofminority languages in various multilingual contexts.Recognizing the intrinsic relationship between

language protection in education and employmentwith the broader goals of citizenship and socialcohesion, the forum established the importance oflanguage rights and protection for the stability andsustainability of multilingual political communities.

In the case of Tibet (which encompasses the Tibet Autonomous Region and the Tibetan autonomousareas of the neighboring provinces of Qinghai,Gansu, Sichuan and Yunnan), it was recognizedthat important steps had been taken to ensurethe protection of the Tibetan language since theestablishment of the Peoples Republic of Chinain 1949. The PRC Constitution and the Regional

National Autonomy Law have long provided a legalframework for guaranteeing the use and protectionof the Tibetan language, particularly within the

Tibetan region. In education, the principle of bilingualeducation has been embraced in certain Tibetanareas since the 1980s, leading to measurableachievements in improving educational standards,and some institutional effort has been made todevelop Tibetan language curriculum in sciencesubjects at the secondary level and in teacher trainingprograms.

Ron Schwartz, Professor of Sociology, Memorial University Chung Dolma, Lhasa, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Kunsang Sherab, Qinghai ProvincialCommittee of Nationalities and Religious Affairs

tgapforum.org

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