Education in Old Tibet Under Feudal Serfdom

　　Tibetan education enjoys a history of more than 1,000 years, beginning with the creation of a Tibetan written script during the Tubo Kingdom. Under the Feudal Serfdom characteristic of the temporal and religious administration, however, Tibetan society was underdeveloped. Naturally, Tibetan educational progress was severely impeded. In 1951, when Tibet was peacefully liberated, its education level compared extremely unfavorably with world progress and even lagged far behind China's hinterland.
　　Before its peaceful liberation in 1951, Tibet had no regular schools in the modern sense. Monastic education was the chief form of education. In major cities towns, there were a few small, low-level schools to train future lay and monk officials. Statistics show that, in addition to monastic education, there were about 20 schools run by local governments, and nearly 100 private schools, with a total enrollment of less than 1000 students.
　　 The right of education in old Tibet was in the hands of serf owners. The education contained strong class nature and religious flavor. The schools, aimed at nurturing lay and monk officials for every field of Tibetan life, enrolled pupils mainly from monks and the children of the aristocracy and government officials. The subjects taught ranged from the morality of the noble class to the knowledge and techniques required to be a ruler. They included Tibetan language, calligraphy, document composition, calculation. Sanskrit language and religious etiquette. There were no courses in natural sciences, such as mathematics, physics and chemistry. The schools boasted neither qualified teachers nor unified teaching materials and proper classrooms. Instead, monks served as teachers, scriptures were used as teaching materials, and sutra halls and dorms served as classroom. There was no special management organ, and no plan for regular terms. Students were taught mainly to read and write. Even this kind of education was not available to the ordinary Tibetan people. The government stipulated, for example, that children of blacksmiths and butchers were not anowed to school; and children from the families of common people, who were lucky enough to have the opportunity to attend school, could not sit with aristocratic students, And after graduation they could not take a job, but went back home. Therefore, less than 2 percent of school-age children attended school and the illiteracy rate amounted to 95 percent on the eve of Tibet's peaceful liberation in l95l.
　　 In a nutshell, Tibetan education under feudal serfdom was backward and declining, as was also the case in politics, economics and social development. Modern education did not exist. The following is a brief introduction to education in old Tibet.

1. Monastic Education

　　Almost all Tibetans are Buddhists, and Buddhism has had a profound influence. Before 1959, there were some 2,000 monasteries in Tibet with 110,000 monks and nuns, who made up 10 percent of total population. Tibetan historical traditions, culture and life have all been laced with a religious flavor. During the 1,000 years since the mid-8th century, when the Samye Monastery in Shannan created its Excellent Buddhist Doctrine School, Buddhism gradually established its ruling position in Tibet and all monasteries made efforts to expand monastic education by encouraging disciples to follow Buddhism and spread Buddhist scripture. In this way, a monastic education system was set up. Feudal serf owners, taking the monasteries as their stronghold, not only controlled the political and economic power, but almost all fields, including culture and art, medicine and public health, and astronomical calendar. Tibetan Buddhism ruled all thinking. "Outside the monastery, there was no school. There was no education except for Buddhist studies, and there was no teachers except lama teachers." This sums up the situation.
　　 Students of the monastery schools, mainly monks, majored in Buddhist scriptures, but also gained some knowledge of Tibetan language, handwriting, literature and art, philosophy logic, astronomical Calendar and medicine. Children of laboring people, who wanted to study, had to be tonsured to a monastery. But not all monks had access to advanced study. Most of them were reduced into monks charged with chores in the monastery, leading a spartan life forever. This is why some 80 percent of Tibetan monks were illiterate, and only a small number of Tibetan lamas who enjoyed a better life and power had an opportunity for long-term education before entering the ruler class of the monastery, winning Buddhist academic degrees through written or oral tests, or being appointed as high- ranking officials of the governing group.
　　 Monastic education, as a form of spreading knowledge, had all along been considered the regular education style in Tibet. In Tibet's long history, it nurtured some intellectuals, created numerous historic books, and made some achievements in architecture, sculpture, painting, astronomical calendar and medicine and public health. The monastery itself is an art treasure house, due to its valuable research role in carrying on and developing traditional Tibetan culture. Tripitaka, a Buddhist classic, is hailed as a "bright pearl in the treasure house of the world."
　　 At the same time, it cannot be ignored that the monastic culture, aimed at training successors to the feudal serf owner class, spread beliefs concerning "reincarnation and transmigration," and preached on the entry into the "heavenly kingdom" which is "the extremely happy world after death" to solace those living in harsh conditions. The ideology convinced people they should seek to escape from suffering in the next life. This impeded the progress of Tibetan society and the development of science and technology. As a result, Tibetan lagged far behind other nations in China.

2. Official Education

　　Schools run by local governments were divided into schools for the training of lay and monk officials. Instead of providing students with systematic study, these schools were actually training centers for nurturing local government officials. Most of the students were from noble families. The schools, small in size and low in education level, belonged to the ruling groups. Statistics show that Tibet had six such schools before 1951.
　　 School for training lay officials. The schoold, located east of the Jokhang Monastery, was set up in the time of the 7th Dalai Lama. It was put under the Auditing Department, one of the two major departments of the Tibetan government. The school costs were met from the grain tariffs collected from the area put under the school by the Tibetan government, and small subsidies from the local government. The requirement for entrance to school were following:first, students must be from hereditary noble families; second, their families owned a hereditary manor; and third, they knew some writing. The courses were mainly etiquette, grammar and the writing of the Tibetan language, official document composition, and tax levying and calculation. The school took on the double duty of auditing department and school. The accounting officials managed the school, and the accounments served as teachers. The school term was not strict. Those from families having power or being well-off could be appointed as officials ahead of schedule, while there were a few "old students" who got no promotion for 10 or 20 years. Teachers used very primitive ways to check students' scores. For instance, a teacher asked Students to count stones and wooden blocks in bags. These stones and wooden blocks of varied size represent different figures. Those who could count the contents quickly and accurately passed the examination.
　　 Schools for training monk officials. These schools trained monk officials and were put under the Secretariat, one of the two major departments under the Tibetan government. Besides the one located in Lhasa, there was another In the Tashilhungpo Monastery in Xigaze. Funds needed to keep the schools going also came from school areas in terms of taxes and government subsidies. Teachers were primarily retired monk officials. The students were mainly monks from different monasteries, and most were children of tralpa slave families. But there were a few children of commoners. Religious ceremonies, scriptures and Buddhist objects were the main subjects, to which were added Tibetan grammar, terminology, official document composition and mathematics. Monk composition and mathematics. Monk officials were selected exclusively from graduates of such a school.
　　 Technical secondary schools run by the government. Such schools targeted science and technology with an aim of nurturing medical doctors. Though few in number, they enjoyed a long history. As early as the Tubo Kingdom, Yutok Yonden Gonpo, a Tibetan medicine practitioner, established a private Tibetan medicinal school. During the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), the Tibetan government began to set up public medical training schools in the Zhaibung Monastery, the Potala Palace and Xigaze, but they were soon closed. When the 5th Dalai Lama was in office, the Wisdom Medical School, which is the predecessor of the present-day Tibetan Medicine College, was founded at the ernment gave it land and economic aid, so it has survived. During the reign of the 13th Dalai Lama, a school specializing in medicine and calendar, called Manzekam Lhoza in the Tibetan language, was set up. The medical and calendar school also served as the medical and calendar organ of the Tibetan government. The school was geared to train medical doctors and research climate and calendar in service of agriculture and animal husbandry. Unlike schools set up to train lay and monk officials, its students came from ordinary families. As no students it trained were to be promoted as government officials, the school enjoyed no special suport from the government. However, the school had the public support mainly because it offered medical treatment to the populace. It was actually a major center to train people specialized in Tibetan medicine and Tibetan calendar. Despite its close relationship with monastic education, it was an independent scientific school-a great breakthrough from the traditional education in Tibet.
　　 Tibetan language primary schools. To stabilize the unsteady situation after the 1911 Revolution which toppled the Qing Dynasty, the 13th Dalia Lama ordered all counties to set up a Tibetan language primary school, and stipulated that "all children aged 7 to 15 attend government-run schools." The government offered teachers a salary. As a result, Tibetan language primary schools were set up. But, because of local government corruption and the opposition of conservative forces in society, they were soon closed. Nevertheless, these schools constituted the first attempt at achieving modern education in Tibet still under the feudal serfdom.
　　 Lhasa public primary school. In 1938, the nationalist government of the Republic of China (1912-1949) set up the Lhasa Primary School,which enrolled the children of businessmen and Hui and Han officials of the Tibet Office. Tibetan pupils were rare. Office officials served as teachers, and the number of pupils reached 300 at most. The curriculum included Tibetan, Hui and Chinese writings, as well as arithmetic, history, geology, general knowledge and music. Over 200 children managed to finish their primary education before the school was closed in 1949. The school exerted no big social influences mainly because it was small in size and enrolled only a few Tibetan students.
　　 English schools. In 1904, the British imperialists established English schools in Lhasa and Gyangze for children from noble families, in an attempt to train their puppets to rule Tibet. Firmly opposed by the monasteries, the schools were closed three years later. About 100 children once studied there.

3.Private Education

　　This kind of education was divided into two parts. One way was that feudal lords, noble families, officials and businessmen employed tutors to teach at home; the other referred to private schools located in major cities and towns. Tutors and private school teachers were those who were good at Tibetan. Students included children of noble families, rich people and businessmen as well as family servants specially charged to serve the former. Private school eventually became large in scale. In the early period of the 1840 Opium War, there were some 10 private schools in Lhasa, Xigaze, Gyangze and some other places. During the period of the Republic of China, such schools numbered nearly 100. Their students learned to recite Buddhist scriptures, to read and write and to count. In the later period, their curriculum included letter, document, and treaty writing.
　　 In the classroom, students sat on the floor, holding a wooden board with one hand and writing with a bamboo pen. They learned to count with stones or shells. The teachers evaluated students' result one by one, and arranged their names in the order of their scores. The teachers had a unique method of punishment: the first student in the list was given a thin bamboo clapper to pluck once in the second student's face; the second one plucked twice in the face of the third; the third did the same three times to the fourth, and so on until the last student who suffered most. School students often had to do housework for their teachers, and gave them presents from time to time.
　　 Such private schools, as auxiliaries supplementing the work of the public school, mainly provided with primary education. But in a period when education had yet to be popularized, it occupied an important position in Tibet's educational undertakings.

4.Other Forms of Education

　　Technological education in workshops. Tibetan artisans engaged in household production for generations. Along with the expanding of production scope, enhancement of product quality and division of work, private workshops appeared, such as the carpet workshops in Gyangze and painting studios in Lhasa. Driven by competiton, the workshop workers were organized to attend study sessions and particpate in examinations. This gave birth to a considerable number of skilled workers and technicians.
　　 Hereditary education and individual apprentices. Hereditary education was one of the most popular ways of passing on scientific skills in Tibet. A father was normally a teacher of his son. And a son often inherited his father's property and carried on his work. This phenomenon was very popular, especially in bridge building, architecture, painting, sculpture, weaving and embroidery. Tibetan medicine practitioners normally had their own students as assistants. For example, Yutok Yunden Gonpo had 1,000 students. For this, he was seen as a model teacher. Astronomy and calendaring were taught also in this way with the result that some people were capable of foretelling weather, a boon for farming.