Chapter 8: The Educational Travels of Tibetan Knowledge: The Intellectual Enfranchisement of Indigenous Peoples

In April 2010, a 7.1 magnitude earthquake jolted the Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture¹ in China’s Qinghai Province, killing almost 2, 700 and injuring around 12,000 people, and leaving 11 schools destroyed and their Tibetan students school-less. Returning these Tibetan children to schools proved to be a major social concern. While ‘make-shift schools’ using tents meant classes were resumed within days after the earthquake, a number of students were sent to schools in Eastern Qinghai. For example, 21 orphaned Tibetan children were relocated to the Qinghai Zhaxi Tibetan Middle School in Nashan city; 151 to Hongshan Country Middle School B; and 305 from the quake-devastated Yushu Vocational College were transferred to 5 other VET institutions in Nanshan City, Hannan Prefecture and Huangzhong County (Hongshan County People’s Government, 2010; Ministry of Education of China, 2010a, 2010b).