Abstract
This article illustrates a Tibetan family’s education in Guide (贵德) County, Hainan (海南) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai (青海) Province in China. It first provides a brief introduction of Tibetan education, and the role of the Tibetan family in the education process, and then presents a narrative of the lived experiences of a Tibetan family named “Jiaori (角日).” The article details the Jiaori family members’ educational backgrounds and experiences. Following this, there is an analysis of the educational and relationship changes that occurred over time within the family, and a discussion of the changes in their educational experiences and in their attitudes toward education at the village level. Finally, educational trends in Tibetan areas of China are described based on the Jiaori family’s experiences.
Introduction
“Never ever bring books with you when you are going to herd. If I see any books in your bag next time, I’ll tear them all up and won’t let you come home!” Zhoumao’s (周毛) brother scolded her when she lost 20 sheep because she was reading. Eleven-year-old Zhoumao loved reading stories but she did not have any money to buy books due to her family’s poverty. Consequently, she borrowed story books from her classmates and read them secretly when she was sent to herd her family’s sheep and goats. Unfortunately, on 7 July 2003, she lost all her family’s 20 sheep because she had been reading a Chinese novel. She dared not go home. She was afraid that her mother and brothers would scold and beat her. So, she looked for the lost sheep for hours and hours with no luck. Finally, all her family members came to her and looked for the lost sheep until dawn the next day. From that day on, she was not allowed to take any books while herding and she also gave up reading. Thus, after a year, her study, which had been outstanding, became average and then poor, and she could not achieve her dream of going to university.
Stories like Zhoumao’s are very common in Tibetan areas in China. However, there are few educational research studies focusing on such lived experiences or on the provision for basic family education in Tibetan areas. Therefore, the study described here was designed in order to provide suggestions for improving Tibetan education by focusing on a specific family’s educational experiences in Maba 麻巴 Village, Guide 贵德 County, Qinghai 青海 Province, PR China. The article first provides a brief introduction to Tibetan education, especially one Tibetan family member’s educational experiences. A brief introduction to a typical Tibetan family named “Jiaori 角日” is included, followed by a consideration of the Jiaori Family members’ educational background and experience. Additionally, it analyzes changes of the family members’ educational experiences and their relationships in the family, which is taken as representative of villagers’ educational experiences and attitudes toward education. Finally, this article examines some educational trends that are occurring in Tibetan areas of China based on the Jiaori family’s experiences.
Background
China’s Tibetan areas are changing rapidly. Traditional rituals, customs, religion, food, lifestyle, and languages are evolving and some are disappearing. This in turn has caused many social problems. For example, many Tibetans are illiterate in the dominant languages of English and Mandarin (Putonghua 普通话). Their school-based performance results are much poorer than for many other ethnic groups in China. This has many repercussions, for example, as Wang (2007) noted Tibetan businesspeople are not doing well in today’s market in China and they make up less than 20% of the market in Tibetan areas. Also, Caixiangduojie’s (2009) “Thirty Years of Educational Reforms in Tibetan Areas of China” illustrated that Tibetans are not doing well, mainly due to poor language education, especially in the dominant languages of English and Chinese.
Most studies on Tibetan education focus on the implementation of policies in the system. For instance, Postiglione (2008) reviewed China’s education policies related to Tibetans. He maintained that registration for school was increasing but that their performance in the system was not all good. Gcan rong bstan ‘zhin (2003) focused on illustrating how students coped with problems at schools in specific Tibetan areas, and while he recognized that provision for Tibetan education was a responsibility for all people in China, he did not make any recommendations about how the situation could be improved.
Muduo (2004) mainly focused on the development of minority education, especially bilingual education. More specifically, he described Qinghai’s situation, in which he explains the advantage of educational reforms and requirements, illustrated the relationship between ethnic education and the economy, and examined minority policy. In the end, he briefly suggested using the law to control students, but provided no detailed examples or suggestions for action.
Postiglione et al. (2006) examined the popularization of basic education, policy, and experiences in the village and schools, and the role of homework in Tibetan areas. They found that there are some factors affecting why parents send their children to school and argued that loss of household labor force and a lack of direct economic return makes parents less willing to send their children to school. Interestingly, they also stated that despite the abolition of all school fees and the provision of board, there are still high dropout rates of students in schools in Tibetan areas.
Lha sgrol mtsho (1999) investigated the factors affecting parents’ decisions to send their children to school in Tibetan nomadic areas. She stated that the poor living conditions, inconvenient transportation, lack of technological information, traditional ideas, lack of laborers, lack of economic resources, unstable teachers, and low quality teaching means that many parents do not want their children to attend school. Thus, she suggested that if local governments used more appropriate ways to improve nomadic education with village leaders and teachers, it would improve the lives and education in Tibetan areas. She thought that such topics needed more study and more scholarly scrutiny.
In summary, most studies related to Tibetan education in China have focused on educational policies and the structures of school education, and provided general suggestions about the ways in which education might be improved in Tibetan areas (Batties, 1996; Fischer, 2008). It is rare to find studies focusing on family education 1 that provide thorough and robust suggestions for improving family education in Tibetan areas. There is a limited data focusing on a single village’s experiences, family background, family education, and family perspectives on education in Tibetan areas. Many scholars ignore family education and the impact of family members on children’s education in Tibetan areas.
This study is a description of Jiaori’s family and its education in Maba Village, Hedong Township, Guide County, Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province. It narrates each family member’s educational background and schooling experiences associated with different factors that affect Tibetan education in Maba Village.
Jiaori was born in 1940 and became the owner/leader of his family when he was 20 years old. At this time, his family became known as Jiaori’s family in Maba Village. Jiaori’s house is situated near the Yellow River, 114 kilometers south of the provincial capital, Xining (西宁), and 18 kilometers east of the old Yellow River Bridge (Huanghe daqiao 黄河大桥).
Maba Village is inhabited by approximately 80 households. Its population was originally composed primarily of Tibetans, but today there are also several Hui (回) and Han (汉) families living there. The Tibetan and Han residents of Maba Village are primarily Buddhist, while the Hui families are mostly Muslim. One area of village life that has seen the most changes locally in the past 60 years is education. Right (2012) wrote, “Educational change is a broad term that refers to both shifting paradigms within education and efforts of reform within education” (p. 1). Both of these aspects of educational change are taking place in Maba Village. In this article, I will first describe the research methods used in the study and then I will outline the educational experiences of the Jiaori family, before finally considering the educational changes in Maba Village and their effects on the villagers in subsequent sections.
Research methods
The author is personally interested in researching educational changes in Tibetan areas, and she has observed many educational issues as a resident of Maba Village. Also, her family members’ educational experiences are highly reflective of most Tibetan families in her village. Therefore, the author interviewed her family members; her mother, siblings, and siblings’ children. The interview questions were related to their personal background and educational experiences, including age, years of schooling, current employment and family conditions, their perspectives on current educational systems and children’s education, their hopes for their children and family, and information about changes related to their family, village school, and relationships among family members and villagers.
A Tibetan education narrative
Jiaori’s family education
Jiaori is the patriarch of the Jiaori family. There are 15 people in Jiaori’s family. His wife’s name is Yangcuo (杨措). Their youngest child is a girl named Zhoumao, born in 1989. Zhoumao has three elder brothers and one elder sister. Aside from her eldest brother who is handicapped, all other brothers and her sister are married and each of them has two children.
Jiaori’s education in the 1940s
Jiaori was born in Maba Village in 1943 (above 1940). He never attended school because his parents forbade it. Instead, they kept him at home and made him help them do housework. In their leisure time, his grandfather taught him the Tibetan script, as well as how to chant Tibetan scriptures. In that era, people usually kept their children at home and made them work to earn work points. 2
Yangcuo’s education in the 1960s
Yangcuo is Jiaori’s wife. She was born in Gongba (贡巴) Village 3 in 1953. When Jiaori was 32 years old, his elder sister introduced him to Yangcuo. Once Jiaori saw Yangcuo, they immediately fell in love with each other and agreed to get engaged. After they both explained to their families how they loved each other and asked if they could get married, their family members—especially their parents—agreed.
When Yangcuo married Jiaori, she was 22 years old. Unlike Jiaori, Yangcuo had attended school. Yangcuo’s parents thought that it was very important to send children to school, so, Yangcuo had attended a village school, Gongba Primary School, when she was 7 years old.
When her parents sent her to school, she found that there were many students there that were the same as age as her, so she was very happy to be there and she tried to be a good student. However, the teacher was very strict with the students and she often beat students with sticks, even though students did well in their studies.
On one occasion, Yangcuo left her homework at home, and she did not know how to explain it to her teacher. So when the teacher asked why she did not have her homework, she just put her head down and remained silent. When the teacher saw Yangcuo sitting with her head down, she said, “Like a stupid pig!” She was very angry and thought that Yangcuo had not done her homework and had lied to her. So she used a stick to beat Yangcuo’s head.
“Oh, how heartless the teacher is!” Yangcuo murmured to herself. Then she noticed that there were bumps on her head.
“I won’t come to the school tomorrow, otherwise I will be beaten again, and the bumps on my head will bleed,” Yangcuo cried.
From that day on, Yangcuo did not go to school no matter how her parents tried to persuade her. She just said, “No, I won’t go!” So she just went to school for two weeks, and then never went back.
Caizhuo’s education in the 1970s
Jiaori and Yangcuo thought school education was really important to change people’s lives. Neither of them had formal education, so they wanted their children to get a good education. When they had their first child in 1975, a girl named Caizhuo (才卓), they decided to try their best to send her to school.
Caizhuo attended primary school in Maba Village. After she finished 6 years of primary school, one of Yangcuo’s cousins named Lacuo suggested that Yangcuo let Caizhuo go to Hainan Normal School 4 to continue her studies. They thought it would be easy to find a teaching job after 3 years of studying there. But the problem was that she had to pass the examination that was administered by the school she was attending. Caizhuo followed her mother’s suggestions and took the examination.
Unfortunately, Caizhuo failed the test, which really worried her mother. Her mother really wanted Caizhuo to obtain a better life than she had, and she did not want her daughter to do endless housework like her. Once her mother realized that Caizhuo did not pass the examination, she cried, “Oh, why? Why did you fail your exam? Don’t you know I constantly worry about you? OK, you must enter Hainan Normal School and study there … ”
Four days passed, and Yangcuo took Caizhuo to her cousin, Lacuo (拉措), who was a Chinese teacher at Hainan Normal School and lived in Qiabuqia (恰卜恰) Township, Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. When they arrived at Lacuo’s home, Caizhuo’s mother kneeled down in front of Lacuo and cried for her help. Lacuo was embarrassed and did not know what to do. She also could not stop crying and felt pity for Yangcuo. Finally, she said, OK, I will try my best to help Caizhuo to enter Hainan Normal School. If we do this, Caizhuo needs to take the exam again in one month, and if she can pass, she can enter Hainan Normal School easily.
Fortunately, Caizhuo passed the test and studied at Hainan Normal School for 3 years. After she graduated, she found a job at Daotanghe Boarding School (倒淌河寄校) in Daotanghe Township, Gonghe (共和) County, Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. After a year, she fell in love with one of the other teachers at the boarding school. The teacher’s name is Huaqian (华倩) and Caizhuo married him in 199l.
Today, they live in Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. Caizhuo is Chinese and a mathematics teacher of elementary school grades five and six at Daotanghe Boarding School. Huaqian is now a taxi driver in Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. Their living conditions are not bad. They are trying to buy a new apartment this year. They have two children. The elder girl is 16 years old, and her name is Limaojia (李毛加); the other girl is 7 years old, and her name is Nantaizhuoma (南太卓玛). Limaojia is a grade nine student at Hainan Nationalities’ Middle School in Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture; Nantaizhuoma is a grade two student in Daotanghe Boarding School. Caizhuo and Huaqian think education plays a significant role in people’s life, so they always encourage their two girls to study hard.
Qingyang’s education in the 1970s and 1980s
In 1976, Jiaori and Yangcuo had their second child, a boy named Qingyang (青羊). They wanted their first son to be a village tantric practitioner. 5 When Qingyang was 7 years old, Jiaori gradually started teaching him the Tibetan script. When he could read some easy texts in Tibetan, Jiaori started to teach him how to chant Tibetan scriptures and the usage of Tibetan religious instruments at home. When Qingyang was 15 years old, he was able to chant Tibetan scriptures with Jiaori.
When Qingyang reached the age of 18, he fell in love with Jiayangcuo (加杨措) from the neighboring village of Chada (查达). They got married in 1995 at Jiaori’s house. Jiayangcuo comes from a nomadic area where people do not speak Chinese or Qinghai dialect at all. When she came to Jiaori’s house, for a year she could not speak nor understand Chinese. She started to learn Qinghai dialect with Qingyang. As time went by, her Qinghai dialect improved.
Qingyang and Jiayangcuo are farmers and neither had a formal education, but both learnt Tibetan from their parents. Qingyang and Jiayangcuo are hard working. They not only help Jiaori and Yangcuo do the farming, but also help them to look after all the children at home. Jiayangcuo is often responsible for cooking the food for the family members.
The couple has two children. The elder one is an 18-year-old girl, and the younger one is a 7-year-old boy. The girl’s name is Jimaojia (吉毛加), and she is studying in grade 12 at Guide Nationalities Middle School. Meanwhile, she is preparing to participate in the College Entrance Examination 6 in June 2012. The boy’s name is Danzhentai. He is a primary grade four student in Guide Primary Boarding School in Guide County.
When asked whether Danzhentai liked to go to school, he said that he loves to go to school because he can make many friends who are the same age as him and play with them in his free time. When asked what kind of person he wanted to be in the future, he said that he wanted to be a great person who can help other people wherever they are, and he also wished he could take care of his parents well in the future and provide them with a comfortable life.
Qingyang and Jiayangcuo encourage their children, Jimaojia and Danzhentai. They are unsatisfied with their life and hope their children can study and pursue a better life.
Zhaxi’s education in the 1980s and 1990s
In 1978, Jiaori and Yangcuo had their third child, a boy named Zhaxi (扎西). Zhaxi was sent to the village school (Maba Primary School) when he was 7 years old. After he studied 6 years of Tibetan, Chinese, and Mathematics at Maba Primary School, he continued his studies at Guide Nationalities Middle School, which is five kilometers away from his home.
After 3 years of studying there, he went to Qiabuqia to continue his studies at Hainan Prefecture Nationalities High School. 7 When he was 19 years old, he finished high school and took the College Entrance Examination in 1996. Unfortunately, he failed the examination.
When Zhaxi learned he had failed the College Entrance Examination, he started to cry. He really did not know what to do or how to tell the truth to his parents, but he knew that he had to accept this reality. Thus, he told the results of the College Entrance Examination to his parents and asked for their forgiveness. To his surprise, his parents did not get angry. Instead, they encouraged him to repeat his senior year and take the College Entrance Examination again.
Unfortunately, Jiaori got a serious illness in 1997 and was not able to get out of bed for a year. He passed away in December 1998. Jiaori’s sickness and death brought many debts to Jiaori’s family. Zhaxi had to take care of his father and had to return the money that his family borrowed from others. Thus, Zhaxi was not able to go to school to take the exam again.
Since then, Zhaxi has done all kinds of construction and labor work in Guide town, earning only a low salary. Most of the time, Zhaxi was only paid 10 RMB per day. In those times, Zhaxi said he really had a difficult time and he was busy with construction work day and night. Later, one of Zhaxi’s cousins from his mother’s side suggested to Zhaxi that there was a job for him in Xining, and the cousin asked Zhaxi whether he wanted to try it. Zhaxi happily accepted the offer immediately. In about a month, the cousin arranged for Zhaxi to work at Jiumei Tibetan Medicine Company (久美藏药公司).
In 2002, Zhaxi married Lacuo, who now works for the same company as Zhaxi. Lacuo has a 2-year college certificate from Hainan Nationalities Teachers College. After graduating from college, she was unable to find a government job due to her low exam scores, and so worked part-time for the Jiumei Tibetan Medicine Company before marrying Zhaxi. After marriage, Zhaxi helped Lacuo find a permanent job with the company, and now their living conditions are steadily improving.
Zhaxi and Lacuo have two boys; one is 9 years old and the other is 2 years old. The elder boy’s name is Jixian (吉先), and he is a grade two student in Guide Nationalities Primary Boarding School. The younger boy’s name is Dongzhi (东知) and he is being taken care of by Zhaxi’s mother, Yangcuo, at Jiaori’s home in Maba Village.
Even before they were married, Zhaxi and Lacuo both decided to send their children to school because they consider it necessary to learn new things and to get formal education at school. Thus, they spent more money on books and study materials than other things such as clothes, and food.
Zhaxi and Lacuo spend around 5000 RMB per month. Their expenses include living in Xining, to raising their second son in Maba Village, supporting Zhaxi’s mother Yangcuo and Lacuo’s parents in Xunhua (循化) County, paying their elder son’s school fees, and paying for Zhaxi’s younger sister, Zhoumao, to attend Qinghai Normal University.
Zhoumao’s education in the 1990s and 2000s
Zhoumao is Jiaori and Yangcuo’s youngest child. She was born in 1989, and she went to Maba Primary School in 1996. Her father, Jiaori, passed away when she was in grade three. Her father’s death really shocked her and all of her family members. She saw her mother was aging quickly and getting sick more often after her father’s death.
After Zhoumao’s father’s death, her mother still tried her best to let Zhoumao continue her schooling. Yangcuo borrowed money for Zhoumao’s tuition and cooked and brought food to Zhoumao at school every day. Yangcuo always encouraged Zhoumao to study hard. She always spoke very seriously to Zhoumao, saying things like, “Zhoumao, my sweetheart, you are the person I worry most about in our family. Please don’t let me down, especially in your studies … ”
When Zhoumao was 13 years old, she was able to enter Guide Nationalities Middle School and she earned many prizes from the school due to her outstanding performance on exams. Sadly, when she was in grade nine at the middle school, her elder brother and his wife left her home and started their own household in 2003. The separation brought great sadness to Zhoumao and her mother. Not only was Jiaori’s property reduced, Zhoumao and her mother had to work harder in order to finish all the household chores.
In senior school, Zhoumao really had a difficult time because none of her siblings were at home. Her mother kept 20 sheep in order to support Zhoumao to go to college. In turn, Zhoumao and her mother had to herd the sheep on the mountain every day. While herding, Zhoumao’s mother always chanted Ma Ni 8 to pray for all her children to have good fortune, and she especially prayed for Zhoumao to pass the College Entrance Examination.
Every day, both Zhoumao and her mother carried homemade bread and a bottle of black tea for their lunch. Zhoumao got up at 5 a.m. and walked to school, which was five km away from her home. She often arrived home at about 7 p.m. and cooked food for her mother and herself. Her mother always came late in the evening and she often said, “If we take care of the sheep well, then they will have more lambs in the next year, and we will have more money to support you to go to school!”
Effects of educational changes on families
From the conversations and information from the interviews, we can see that education was viewed as being critical for children in the family, and that there were many ups and downs at Jiaori’s household. In general, there are three main changes occurring in Maba Village: (1) the average education level was rising, (2) people have higher expectations for socio-economic success, and (3) education allows the villagers to find better jobs. The following section, “Average education level is increasing and relationships are changing,” will describe these educational changes in Maba Village and their effects.
Average education level is increasing and relationships are changing
Nowadays, parents send their children to school, and they want their children to learn new things that they did not experience before. They do not make their children stay at home and do other work. Instead, they encourage their children to study hard. In order to motivate their children to study hard, villagers spend most of their money on buying study materials. One reason for this change is the compulsory education policy. This policy requires all children to attend primary and middle school. 9 Not only do they have to go to school, but they also have to live at schools in Guide County Town. This situation affects family relationships because children are separated from their parents and their siblings. They can no longer stay with their family members while they are students. They also become more independent from their parents than children in the past. As a result, relationships between family members are changing.
Parent and child relationships
Children live at school for at least 5 days and nights each week. They eat in the school canteen and sleep in the dormitory. They are often not allowed to go out freely, and can only go out if their parents come to see them and get permission from their class teacher. When these children stay at school, they cannot eat home-cooked food often, they cannot meet their parents when they miss them, and they often get homesick. Obviously, this creates some distance in their relationships with their parents. But when Zhoumao attended Guide Nationality Middle School, the school allowed her to stay at home because she wanted to help her mother to do housework and make sure she was not alone.
Therefore, Zhoumao learned how to do housework, how to cook, and how to take care of her home. Zhoumao’s relationship with her mother was always good, and having that relationship made her stronger and more mature. Parents are the first teachers for children and children need support, advice, and guidance from their parents in their daily life. Parents should not simply push their children toward government jobs, which are commonly referred to as “real jobs.” Parents should also not ignore the values of doing non-governmental jobs, learning technical skills, and trades. Parents’ promotion of these values may work to decrease economic and education disparities in Tibetan communities, which will positively affect community development.
Siblings’ relationships
Since the children stay at school, siblings cannot see each other very often. Many of them are in different grades and different dormitories, and the school does not allow them to live in the same dormitory even though they are siblings. Students are busy from morning to night with their studies. They therefore do not know each other very well, and the only chance to meet each other is on the weekends. As a result, their relationships become distant.
Grandparents’ and grandchildren’s relationships
In the past, three or four generations of one family commonly lived together, and children spent more time with grandparents than parents, because their parents did all the farming and housework. For example, when Zhoumao was going to school, her grandparents raised her until they passed away. They treated her like their own child and looked after her very carefully, so their relationship became close. Now, when she thinks of them, she still misses the time they spent together and feels guilty because she did not do anything for them.
Today, grandparents do not live with their grandchildren because children live in school. This makes grandparents lonelier and destroys family unity. Thus, families in Maba Village are breaking down.
Lifestyles have changed and people have high expectations
In the past, before 1990s, people in Maba Village mainly relied on farming, and their standard of living was very low. They had no cash income, and they had no modern technology such as freezers, televisions, radios, or heaters. Their houses had dirt floors, and there was no running water.
As the education level has risen, villagers have recognized the benefits modern technology has brought, and gradually, they started to buy accessible and affordable modern technology for their homes. After many people in the village found jobs in other places, they started moving to work, and some of them also took their family members to live with them. After they left, their houses and fields remained in the village and nobody was allowed to use the resources unless they got permission from the family or bought the house and fields. This made the village quiet and ugly, because many people were not living in their houses and planting their fields anymore. There are not enough laborers for farming and herding. Thus, there are less people in Maba Village, so the community is breaking down.
People who get a higher education have more opportunities to live in more comfortable apartments with better modern technological equipment. They are also working in big cities such as Xining, Lanzhou, Chengdu, and Beijing. Higher education means better jobs, which leads to more money, which in turn leads to higher expectations.
Education allows the villagers to find jobs
As mentioned above, after children finish school, they often do not stay in the village and they try to get jobs in other places. Many of them become citizens in Xining and other cities. Some of them are Tibetan medical practitioners and some of them are teachers in Tibetan and Chinese.
As a result, people with jobs outside the village are busy with their jobs and most of them do not have time to look after their children, so many parents send their children to kindergarten when they are about 3 years old. Parents think it is convenient for them to go to work and also very helpful for children to learn new things when they are young. Thus, there are not many children in Maba Village and people cannot hear children laughing and crying any more. Likewise, children also cannot meet village people very often, because they are busy with their studies.
Conclusion
Tibetan communities are changing rapidly nowadays and education plays a key role in improving a community. It is crucial for Tibetans to have a good education. It is also important for families to play an important role in supporting the education of family members. Over the last six decades, Jiaori’s family had many sorrows and joys, but their condition has improved in many ways. For instance, from the 1940s to 2010, Jiaori’s family changed from being illiterate to literate, from monolingual to trilingual, from little-to-no education to gaining entry into higher education, from poor to better being off financially, and from a big family of 13 members to a small family of two members. Similar changes have been happening in other families in Maba Village.
In summary, education has brought great changes to Maba Village. The changes have brought many good things, and at the same time they have led to significant changes that have disrupted the traditional family unit. People have positive attitudes toward education, and they believe that education can change their destiny. The educational changes in Maba Village include the implementation of the new compulsory educational policy, which requires all children to go to school. These changes in turn have had many effects, including (1) family relationships are becoming more distant; (2) fewer people are living in Maba Village; (3) there are not enough laborers in the village; and (4) villagers’ living conditions have improved in terms of money and other material goods. Nowadays, this kind of phenomena is happening broadly in Tibetan areas in China. Unfortunately, not many scholars are focusing on these changes.
Therefore, there is a great need to study Tibetan education, especially the role of family in education, in Tibetan areas of China. It is suggested here that Tibetan scholars should examine Tibetan family education and its impact on family life. Studies similar to this one might be conducted in many Tibetan communities. Finally, the author hopes that this study will awaken others, especially Tibetans, to pay attention to family education, and also that as education improves, local cultures will not die and local people will have more rights, better education, and better life in their own home areas.
Footnotes
Acknowledgements
My BA thesis was the longest and most challenging article that I have ever written in my life. I would not be able to write this thesis without the help of the ETP teachers. I want to thank Elena McKinlay for being my thesis advisor, Dr. Gerald Roche for his great suggestions, and Ms. Elizabeth Miller for her kind editing and suggestions. Most importantly, I want to say thank you to Dr. Caixiangduojie for his wise advice on selecting my thesis topic, developing my thesis outline and structure, and putting all my pieces of jumbled writings together into a logical way. Furthermore, I want to say thank you to Mr. Wu Haiyuan, Mr. Wengchanjia, and other ETP teachers for their great support.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.