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

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

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)

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

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?

1. Public Tibetan discourses about decline of Tibetan language (Tibetan ‘declinologists’)

• Zhogs ljang

• Tsering Woeser• Tshul khrims blo gros

“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?)”

Zhogs ljang:Lamenting spelling mistakes indicating a lack of concern on the part of Tibetans for their own language Blaming Tibetans

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)

Spelling mistakes in official context: interpreted as carelessness and disdain on the part of the authorities

“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.”

Woeser: blaming education policies for the wave of self immolations

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 EverydayModern Terms / 3 volumes / 2009-2013

Mkhan po Tshul khrims blo gros: blaming both Tibetans and the authorities

Blogpost: “An Urgent Call for the Protection and Preservation of Tibetan Language”

Published online in English translation by High Peaks Pure Earth in 2014

“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 poTshul 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)

2. Observations from the 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?

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

• Xining Airport: (limited) signs in Tibetan

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

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

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

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)

• 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་མ་ོརྟེ་བ་ཆྟེ རྩམ་པའི་བུ་རོད

Obvious identity dimensions, speaking a pure Tibetan is linked with food habits and vegetarianism

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

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.

3. Is Tibetan language today declining or thrivingin 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 (Tibetannessunder threat?, Brill 2014), strengthening of Tibetan medium education in Qinghai.

• 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

Spelling mistakes are indeed a common sight that are being increasinglypointed at by web language activists (posting pictures, denouncing mistakes)

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« The man-killing brigade of the Public Security Bureau »

« Gtsos, the city of spelling mistakes »

༼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་རོྣན་པོས་གོང་གི་གནའ་ཡིག་དྟེ་ཀོག་ཤྟེས་ཀི་འདུག་གམ སན་ངག་པ་ཚོ ཁྟེད་ཚོའི་ཚོར་ཤྟེས་ཀི་རྣ་ོ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་ཞགི་ཡནི་མདོ་ཀ ི འདིས་མཚོན་གིན་པ་ཡིག་ནརོ་ཙམ་ཞིག་ཡིན་མི་སིད་དྟེ དྟེའི་རྒྱབ་ངོས་སུ་ཡིབ་བསྡད་པའི་ནོར་འཁྲུལ་གཞན་དག་ཀང་མཚནོ་གནི་ཡོད འདི་ནི་སྣང་ཆུང་ཙམ་

ཞིག་ཡིན་མོད་ཀི འདིས་མཚོན་གིན་པ་ནི་སྣང་ཆུང་ཙམ་ཞགི་ཡནི་མི་སིད་དྟེ སྣང་ཆུང་ནས་སྣང་མྟེད་དུ་ཐོད་བརལ་བྟེད་ཀིན་པའི་ཉྟེན་ཁ་ཞིག་མཚོན་གིན་ཡོད་པ་ཡིན

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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 languageEconomical sustainability using Tibetan language is not guaranteed