The Chinese government in Tibet has introduced more than 150 words into the Tibetan jargon. Some of these words are political in nature and have been introduced in ‘accurate’ Tibetan language.

The Qinghai Province’s Ethnic and Religious Affairs Committee stated that 154 new terms have been introduced into the Tibetan language. Technological terms like “e-commerce”, “car-hailing all,” “digital economy” and “internet plus” have been translated into Tibetan.

However, a full list of the translated words or the new political words has not been covered by majority of news agencies. “It is important that we translate new words and terms into accurate Tibetan,” committee official Me-Tsering said.

The introduction of new Tibetan words is part of a project which was started in 1999. Since then, more than 8,000 new words have been introduced in the Tibetan jargon.

CTA’s Department of Education has been intermittently introducing new Tibetan terms in primary school textbooks. In much of Tibet, primary education is conducted either primarily or entirely in the Tibetan language, and bilingual education is rarely introduced before students reach middle school. However, Chinese is the language of instruction of most Tibetan secondary schools.

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