Education changes Tibet

Before 1951, 92 percent of the population of Tibet was illiterate. That proportion is now 44 percent. A report published this year by the Dalai Lama's Dharamsala-based "government-in-exile" and titled "Environment and Development in Tibet: A Crucial Issue" (available on its website) seeks to perpetuate the myth that Tibetans are fast becoming a minority in their homeland as a result of a policy of Han settlement in Tibet. In fact, of the Tibet autonomous region (TAR) population of 2.8 million, Tibetans account for 92 percent, other ethnic minorities for around 2 percent, and Han a little under 6 percent.

Government officials in Tibet emphasize that the accusation that Hans control the administration of Tibet is wrong. Tibetans constitute a majority of the cadre within the local government and the Communist Party.

According to Duo Ji Ciren, Vice-Commissioner of the Administrative office of Linzhi prefecture, 70 percent of civil servants in Linzhi prefecture are either Tibetans or from other ethnic minorities, and key prefectural posts are held by Tibetans.