08/17/2026
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A young friend remembers his old friend Lobga Rangzen, a Tibetan independence activist who livestreamed his own self-immolation outside the UN headquarters in New York on July 2, 2026, protesting China’s new Ethnic Unity Law and its policies toward Tibet.
His protest comes amid growing concern over China’s residential-school system for Tibetan children. UN experts have reported that nearly ONE MILLION Tibetan children have been separated from their families through this system, including children as young as four.
The impact is especially profound in rural, remote and nomadic Tibetan communities, where village schools have been closed or consolidated and children are sent away to centralized boarding schools. This removes children from the families and communities where Tibetan language, culture, religion and traditional knowledge are passed between generations.
Human-rights researchers have warned that Mandarin-dominant education and separation from Tibetan-speaking families are contributing to the assimilation of Tibet’s next generation.
When a child grows up unable to speak the language of their grandparents, what happens to the stories, traditions, prayers and knowledge carried by that language?
Tibet’s children deserve the right to grow up connected to their families, language, culture and homeland.
𝑹𝑨𝑾 𝑬𝑴𝑶𝑻𝑰𝑶𝑵 𝑨𝑻 𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑼𝑵: Tibetan youth breaks down speaking on 𝐏𝐚𝐰𝐨 𝐋...
