“Higher education”: Scripture and football at a university in Tibet Asia Pacific News

Tibetan nuns dressed in garnets discuss Buddhist precepts as monks cross the artificial grass pitch on the roof of the world to kick a footballer.

Tibetan Buddhist College, one of the highest studies on the planet, has more than 900 students studying Mandarin, English and political studies.

Everything takes place under the watchful eye of Chinese President Xi Jinping, whose portrait sets the mood for the university, embedded in a hill at least 3,600 meters (11,800 feet) above sea level.

He said Beijing had “peacefully liberated” the mountainous region of Tibet in 1951 and stressed that since then it has brought infrastructure and education to an undeveloped region.

Chinese flags and Xi pepper aphorisms on the university field.

But there is no indication that the Dalai Lama is the spiritual leader of Tibet, who fled the region in 1959 and formed a government in exile in India.

The AFP news agency this week launched a government-led media tour of the politically sensitive region.

Since 2008, it has been almost impossible for journalists to visit except on organized trips.

Sporadic protests have begun in Tibet in recent decades, including self-immolation by monks in the heart of Lhasa and large-scale protests against Chinese rule in 2008, which left many dead.

Rights groups say it is very dangerous to express any anti-government views today, and it quickly fades away as they shake up unrest.

During the media tour, college students were shining brightly on the praises of education.

Monks, nuns, and beginners rehearsed religious texts, taught English, and showed traditional Buddhist discussions in a stone courtyard where the speaker provided emphatic rhetorical gardens.

“I’ve been here for over two years,” 32-year-old monk Xirekewang said. “We study from 6am to 9pm in the afternoon. I like studying here and I’m not tired … life is very good “.

But China has been accused of deliberately diluting Tibetan culture, as well as directing its education system.

Critics say freedom of movement and expression is highly controlled amid the region’s constant “sinicization”.

Academics say it has become very difficult to study in the region because it is more difficult to assess the quality of life on earth independently.

“The levels of repression needed to cover things up in Tibet … tell me that things are still tense there,” said Gray Tuttle, a professor of modern studies at Tibet Columbia University in Tibet.

The students smiled at the well-funded foreign media on the Lhasa campus, which has a new artificial football pitch and track.

Gesang Wangdui, vice president of the university, told the media that the success of the university is in the hands of China.

“I am a party member. I’m not a Buddhist, I’m a communist. “