Presentation given at the workshop on Minority Languages of the Chinese Tibetosphere at Uppsala University, Nov 3-4 2014.

1. Declining or thriving? Some observations
about the current state
of Tibetan language use in Qinghai Province
Françoise Robin (INALCO)
Minority Languages in the Chinese Tibetosphere
Uppsala / 3-4 November 2014

3. ང་ཚོ་ཚང་མས་དུས་རྒྱུན་མི་རིགས་ཤིག་གི་འཚོ་རྟེན་ནི་མི་རིགས་དྟེའི་
སྐད་ཡིག་ཡིན་ཟྟེར་ནས་མ་ཎི་བགྲང་བགྲང་བྟེད་ཀིན་འདུག
“All of us currently repeat over and over the
mantra ‘The vital core of a nationality is its
language’” (WeChat, nov. 2014)
Mid 2000s  first language-support grassroots initiatives (journal Bla srog, associations)
Spring 2008  reinforcement of ethnic feeling among Tibetans
Oct. 2010  reinforcement of imperative of linguistic preservation among Tibetans in Qinghai

4. Difficulties in assessing the linguistic situation of Tibetan in Amdo-speaking
parts of Qinghai:
- emotionally-loaded discourses
- difficulty of holding genuine and uncensored debates
- irregular access to the field
- size of Amdosprachbund in Qinghai province
 Any generalisation is uncertain
- Cognitive dissonance between Tibetans’ laments on social networks
and my fieldtrip in August/September 2014
 Adding complexity to the complexity

5. Organisation of presentation:
1. Public sphere discourses about the decline of Tibetan language (2014)
2. Fieldwork observations (August 2014)
3. What sense to make of these contrasted views?

6. 1. Public Tibetan discourses about decline of Tibetan
language (Tibetan ‘declinologists’)
• Zhogs ljang
• Tsering Woeser
• Tshul khrims blo gros

7. Zhogs ljang:
Lamenting spelling mistakes indicating a lack of concern on
the part of Tibetans for their own language
 Blaming Tibetans
“བོད་ཡིག་གི་ལས་དབང་ལ་སྟེམས་ཁུར་བྟེད་པའི་བོད་མི་ཞིག་ཧ་ལམ་མྟེད་པའི་ཚོད་ཡིན་ནམ ”
“(Could it be there is not a single Tibetan person responsible for the fate
of Tibetan script?)”

8. Spelling mistakes in official context:
interpreted as carelessness and disdain on the part of the authorities
CCTV 4’s Dongfang (The East). Episodes 35, 36: Tibet-related events in 1950s and 1960s.
Chinese banner: “Welcome Tibetan Delegations participating in the National People’s Congress in Beijing”
Tibetan banner: illegible
(http://www.savetibet.org/newsroom/tibet-tidbits/#sthash.wVTTf2hq.dpuf)
Official Work Certificate – TAR:
“People’s Government of TAR, Department of Human Resource and Social
Security Work Certificate, Date of Issue, Year, Month.”
Mistakes in Tibetan spelling in the words “Tibet,” “Autonomous,” “Region,”
“Social,” “Certificate,” and “Month”.
(http://www.savetibet.org/newsroom/tibet-tidbits/#sthash.wVTTf2hq.dpuf)

9. Woeser: blaming education policies
for the wave of self immolations
“Why do Tibetans self-immolate?” (18 April 2014)
Reasons: 1. Political violence against Buddhism / 2. Environmental
damage / 4. Migration / 5. Monitoring
Reason 3
• “3. The constant weakening of Tibetan language education.”

10. Mkhan po Tshul khrims blo gros: blaming both Tibetans and the authorities
Mkhan po Tshul khrims blo gros et al.: authors of the highly successful dictionaries
རྒྱུན་བཀོལ་རིས་འགྲྟེལ་མིང་མཛོད / རྒྱ་བོད་དབིན་གསུམ་གསར་བྱུང་རྒྱུན་བཀོལ་མིང་མཛོད
Illustrated Dictionnary of Daily Objects. Chinese / Tibetan / English Dictionary of Everyday
Modern Terms / 3 volumes / 2009-2013

11. Blogpost: “An Urgent Call for the Protection
and Preservation of Tibetan Language”
Published online in English translation by High Peaks Pure Earth in 2014

12. “Language is the fundamental lifeline of a culture. It is the reservoir of identity and
the most precious gem of a nationality – of a people. The fact is that Tibetan
language is struggling in the deep waters of decline and devaluation” (Mkhan po
Tshul khrims blo gros).
Mkhan po Tshul khrims blo gros lists 4 reasons:
1° No urban environment for Tibetan language
2° No standardised vocabulary
3° Voluntary urban sinicisation among Tibetans, code-switching
4° Gap between theory (autonomy) and practice
 Lack of awareness among Tibetans (2, 3)
 Lack of political will on part of the State and concerned authorities (1, 4)

13. 2. Observations fromthe field (Qinghai, Amdo, August 2014)
1. Extension of sphere of public visibility for Tibetan script
2. Success of language purity movement
3. Individual initiatives: isolated cases or prelude to a wider
movement?

14. a) Extension of sphere of public visibility for Tibetan script
• 4 banks with ATM in Tibetan in
Qinghai province since May 2014:
 Bank of China
 Construction Bank
 Agricultural Bank
 Bank of Qinghai

15. • Xining Airport: (limited) signs in Tibetan

16. • Tibetan Market in Xining (Bod mi’i khrom): a Tibetan world of its own

17. Telephone with Tibetan script:
« The Message of the Emperor »

18. b) Amazing effectiveness of the « pure mother tongue movement »
Pha skad gtsangma ཕ་སྐད་གཙང་མ Started ca. 2010

19. Weibo:  1854 results found for "ཕ་སྐད་གཙང་མ་བཤད་རོགས "
(« speak a pure mothertongue »)
• 赞1975 says ས་སིད་པོ་སོ་ལྗང་གདན་སྟེང་ནས རང་ཕ་སྐད་གཙང་མའི་གླུ་ཞིག་
ལྟེན བོད་ཁ་ཅན་གི་ན་གཞོན་ཚོ དུས་རྒྱུན་དུ་རང་སྐད་ གཙང་མ་
ལབ http://t.cn/R7OY937 (10 RT 6 Reply +19)

20. • TBring says རང་མི་རིགས་བསམ་ན་ལྷད་མྟེད་པའི་ཕ་སྐད་དྭངས་མ་དྟེ་བརྟེད་མི་ཉན ལུས་བདྟེ་ཐང་བསམ་ན་དུག་མྟེད་པའི་མ་ཟས་གཙང་མ་དྟེ་བསྐྱུར་མི་ཉན (3 Pics: 1 / 2 / 3)
• 扎西拉达嘎布says ཕ་སྐད་གཙང་མའི་སྐད་ཆ་བཤད ཕ་གོས་གཙང་མའི་རང་ལུས་རྒྱན ཕ་ཟས་གཙང་མའི་དཀར་ཟས་ཟ དུས་རྒྱུན་འདི་ལྟར་མ་བྱུང་ཡང་ ལྷ་དཀར་ཉིན་མོ་རྟེ་བ་ཆྟེ
རྩམ་པའི་བུ་རོད
 Obvious identity dimensions, speaking a pure Tibetan is linked with food habits and vegetarianism

21. Ongoing classes for the eradication of illiteracy རོངས་སྟེལ་འཛིན་གྲྭ
Many grassroot organisations:
གཙང་པ་རིག་གནས་དར་སྟེལ་ཚོགས་པ (མགོ་ལོག) (Association for the development of the purity culture, Golok)
མགར་ཚོགས་པ (Mgar tshogs pa, founded in 2006, regularly holds literacy classes)
16 eradication of illiteracy classes held in Winter 2013 - Spring 2014

22. c) Voluntarily “sent-down youth”: isolated cases or preludes to a growing
trend?
Some educated Tibetans living in a Chinese environment (Xining, Beijing) send their
children back to school in a Tibetan environment for a period of time (1 year, 1
summer)
Peer pressure is mounting and not sending one’s child(ren) to the countryside or to
a Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture school is considered a lack of loyalty to one’s
people.

23. 3. Is Tibetan language today declining or thriving
in Amdo/Qinghai–or both, or neither?
• Mkhan po Tshul khrims blo gros’ article: made available to the English-reading
public in 2014, but written in fact in 2010
1° No urban environment for Tibetan language [in 2010]  now emerging
2° No standardized vocabulary [in 2010]  now solved
3° Voluntary urban sinicization among Tibetans, code-switching [in 2010]  now greater awareness
4° Gap between theory (autonomy) and practice [in 2010]  now ????
• Decline in the Tibetan medium schooling system? According to Zenz (Tibetanness
under threat?, Brill 2014), strengthening of Tibetan medium education in Qinghai.

24. • Zhogs ljang et al.: zero tolerance
for spelling mistakes
or for lack of Tibetan script
 Development of language activists
• Language activism: “If you are a genuine Tibetan, and if you do not want to
be the Other’s running dog, from today onwards, I beg your from the
bottom of my heart to use only your own script, in places where it is
possible, in any circumstances … if [you] really have a deep love (rus dung)
for Tibet, not to find excuses such as not knowing how to use the Tibetan
system, or not being an expert with it” (Blogpost, 11 May 2014)
(ཁྟེད་རང་ཡང་བོད་པ་རྣལ་མ་ཞིག་ཡིན་འདོད་ན གཞན་གི་རྒྱུག་ཁི་ཞིག་མིན་འདོད་ན ཉི་མ་དྟེ་རིང་ནས་བཟུང་ རང་གི་ཕ་སྐད་དང་ཡི་གྟེ་བཀོལ་
ཆོག་ས་ནས་ཅིས་ཀང་རང་གི་ཡི་གྟེ་མ་གཏོགས་མ་བཀོལ་རོགས་སིང་ནས་ཞུ ) http://blog.amdotibet.cn/crdw123/archives/108995.aspx

25. Spelling mistakes are indeed a common sight that are being increasingly
pointed at by web language activists (posting pictures, denouncing mistakes)
http://blog.amdotibet.cn/abcdtbt/archives/78232.aspx
http://www.tbnewyouth.com/article/call/2009/10/03/179/
« The man-killing brigade of the
Public Security Bureau »
« Gtsos, the city of spelling mistakes »

26. ༼ཏྱཧ་བཏབཡྟེཡིན་ཡིན་པ༽ གྲོགས་པོ་ལགས ཁྟེད་ཀིས་གོང་གི་
ཚིག་དུམ་དྟེའི་དོན་གོ་ཡི་འདུག་གམ ཞིབ་འཇུག་པ་ཚོ ཁོད་ཚོའི་
རོག་དཔོད་ཀི་དབལ་ཁ་རྣོན་པོས་གོང་གི་གནའ་ཡིག་དྟེ་ཀོག་ཤྟེས་ཀི་
འདུག་གམ སན་ངག་པ་ཚོ ཁྟེད་ཚོའི་ཚོར་ཤྟེས་ཀི་རྣོ་ཁ་སྟེན་པོས་
གོང་གི་སན་ངག་དྟེའི་དོན་གོ་ཡི་འདུག་གམ ཁོད་ཚོས་གོ་མི་སིད
༼ཏྱཧ་བཏབཡྟེཡིན་ཡིན་པ༽ འདི་ནི་ཡིག་ནོར་ཙམ་ཞིག་ཡིན་མོད་ཀི འདིས་མཚོན་གིན་པ་ཡིག་ནོར་ཙམ་ཞིག་ཡིན་མི་སིད་དྟེ དྟེའི་རྒྱབ་ངོས་སུ་ཡིབ་བསྡད་པའི་ནོར་འཁྲུལ་གཞན་དག་ཀང་མཚོན་གིན་ཡོད འདི་ནི་སྣང་ཆུང་ཙམ་
ཞིག་ཡིན་མོད་ཀི འདིས་མཚོན་གིན་པ་ནི་སྣང་ཆུང་ཙམ་ཞིག་ཡིན་མི་སིད་དྟེ སྣང་ཆུང་ནས་སྣང་མྟེད་དུ་ཐོད་བརལ་བྟེད་ཀིན་པའི་ཉྟེན་ཁ་ཞིག་མཚོན་གིན་ཡོད་པ་ཡིན
http://www.tbnewyouth.com/article/call/201208251993.html

27.  Reclaiming Tibetan language in Qinghai/Amdo:
State-led 30-year educational policies in Amdo parts of Qinghai + joint Tibetan
grassroot movements since 10 years
From linguistic anxiety and defeatism to linguistic resistance and assertiveness
(2010-)
2014- : Sustainability and spatial extent of this linguistic assertiveness?
The nexus is political:
In the case of Sámi language, the “reversal of the language shift … coincided with
the introduction of more supportive macro level policies” (“Reclaiming Sámi
Languages”(Rasmussen, Nolan, 2011)
Educational policies in Qinghai are not favourable to Tibetan language
Economical sustainability using Tibetan language is not guaranteed