As she speaks, her eyes drift toward the pasture beyond the window. “It’s not that I don’t want him to study,” she says softly. “I just worry that when he grows up, he’ll neither know how to herd nor fit into city life.”

This is Golog, a Tibetan prefecture in Qinghai Province, perched over 4,000 meters above sea level. In recent years, boarding schools here have adopted a “Mandarin-first, Tibetan-second” model, using state-standard textbooks in Chinese, while Tibetan has been reduced to a single subject.

The facilities have improved, and teachers from Shanghai have come to assist. For many Han educators, Mandarin is seen as “a bridge leading children off the plateau and into the future.” Yet through this modern education, children slowly become different from the families and communities they leave behind.

Language, however, is more than communication—it carries identity. As one herdsman father worries that his child may forget their mother tongue and lose connection to the land, a mother quietly admits her mixed feelings: she hopes her son will have new opportunities, but wonders how a village child can ever compete with students from the cities. Few families can afford to send their children to higher education.

This tension between modernization and tradition is not unique to Tibet—it is a crossroads faced by every culture in rapid change. What kind of adults will these children become? And where will they finally belong? The meeting of two worlds has made education in Tibet a choice filled with both hope and heartbreak.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, You hear the hopes and fears of every Tibetan parent—the longing for their children’s success, and the ache of seeing them lose touch with their roots. You also know the good intentions of educators who want to open new possibilities for the next generation.

Amid this tension, guard the hearts of Tibetan children. As they learn new knowledge and languages, help them remember the stories and needs of their homeland. May they grow strong in both cultures, becoming a new generation of Tibetan thinkers who use modern skills to preserve what is sacred, and tell their people’s story with gentleness and strength. We pray that education itself will become a bridge between cultures, fostering understanding and mutual respect rather than division. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray, Amen.