The 2010 Tibetan language protest was a series of protests in Tongren County, Gonghe County and Maqên County, in Qinghai Province; Minzu University of China in Beijing; and Xiahe County in Gansu Province, People's Republic of China by ethnic Tibetan students over the period of October 20 through October 27, 2010. [1]
A range of reports from hundreds to 9000 [1] people were alleged to have been involved in the protest. According to a local Tibetan blogger, the head of the county's education department drove out and assured the protesters that "their grievances would be addressed by senior officials". [4] A series of apparently related protests inspired [5] by this took place in Gonghe County on October 20; in Maqên County in the neighboring Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture on October 21; in Xiahe County on October 25. 400 Tibetan students also staged a supportive demonstration on October 22 on the campus of Minzu University of China in Beijing. [6]
On Oct. 29, the Government of Qinghai said these incidents reflect some misunderstandings of the bilingual education policy by Tibetan people and reiterated that "The guiding ideology and the basic principles of strengthening and improving the bilingual education is completely correct" and that "as the state is promoting the use of Standard Mandarin and Chinese characters, the right of using the local minority languages by minority peoples should be sufficiently respected and protected". [7]
There are several hundred languages in China. The predominant language is Standard Chinese, which is based on central Mandarin, but there are hundreds of related Chinese languages, collectively known as Hanyu, that are spoken by 92% of the population. The Chinese languages are typically divided into seven major language groups, and their study is a distinct academic discipline. They differ as much from each other morphologically and phonetically as do English, German and Danish, but meanwhile share the same writing system (Hanzi) and are mutually intelligible in written form. There are in addition approximately 300 minority languages spoken by the remaining 8% of the population of China. The ones with greatest state support are Mongolian, Tibetan, Uyghur and Zhuang.
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Haixi Mongolian and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, locally also known as Qaidam Prefecture, is an autonomous prefecture occupying much of the northern tier of as well as part of the southwest of Qinghai Province, China. It has an area of 325,785 square kilometres (125,786 sq mi) and its seat is Delingha. The name of the prefecture literally means "west of (Qinghai) Lake."
Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, formerly known as Tsolho Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, is an autonomous prefecture of Northeastern Qinghai Province in Western China. The prefecture has an area of 45,895 square kilometres (17,720 sq mi) and its seat is located in Gonghe County. Its name literally means "south of (Qinghai) Lake."
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Tongren, known to Tibetans as Rebgong in the historic region of Amdo, is the capital and second smallest administrative subdivision by area within Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Qinghai, China. The city has an area of 3465 square kilometers and a population of ~80,000 (2002), 75% Tibetan. The economy of the city includes agriculture and aluminium mining.
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Xinghai County is county under the jurisdiction of Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, in the east-central part of Qinghai Province, People's Republic of China
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Qabqa or Chabcha is a town in Gonghe County, Qinghai, China. It is the seat of the Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture and the seat of Gonghe County. Qabqa has an altitude of 2835 m. The average annual temperature is 3.4 °C (38.1 °F), and the average annual precipitation is 321.4 mm (12.65 in).
Yongzin (www.yongzin.com) is the first search engine of Tibetan language in the world. It went live in August 2016, at a cost of 23 million yuan from a location in Gonghe County, Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, China.
Lhade Namloyak is a Tibetan-Australian poet.
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Yan Jinhai is a Chinese politician of Tibetan ethnicity who is the current chairman of Tibet Autonomous Region, in office since 8 October 2021. Previously he served as party secretary of Lhasa, the capital of Tibet Autonomous Region.
Rinchen Gya was a Chinese politician of Tibetan ethnicity who served as chairman of the Qinghai Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference between 2012 and 2018. Previously he served as secretary of Qinghai Commission for Discipline Inspection and before that, party secretary and governor of Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture.
