On the issue of language, I want to inform this committee that our language comes from India. It has nothing to do with Chinese language. The alphabet of Tibetan language is ka kha ga nga; in Hindi, it's ka kha ga gha nga. It's the same language that comes from India. Our religion also comes from India.
With regard to language, during Mao Zedong's time, they had to use Tibetan language. There was no other way, because Tibetans didn't speak the Chinese language. To spread propaganda, they used the Tibetan language. However, during the Cultural Revolution a lot of things were destroyed during the 10 years from 1966 to 1976. Even before that, the previous Panchen Lama, the 10th Panchen Lama, submitted a 70,000-character report to the Chinese government, as early as 1962, speaking about the destruction of the Tibetan language and religious heritage in Tibet after the Communist invasion of Tibet.
There was a little freedom when Deng Xiaoping, came into power and Hu Yaobang also visited Tibet. The former Panchen Rinpoche was also released. The Panchen Rinpoche was always a very outspoken personality, a leader of Tibetans, who did not fear persecution, even though he was under house arrest for many years and had been through very repressive actions by the Chinese government, including putting a hat on his head and being criticized by his own people, shaming him during those periods. However, after he was released, he played a very important role in getting language, religion and culture back on track in Tibet. Unfortunately, he died under very mysterious circumstances in 1989.
When Hu Jintao took over as party secretary, he imposed martial law and there was much more control in Tibet. When Hu Jintao came in as President of China, in those days he even named His Holiness as a wolf in monk's clothing. That was the kind of rhetoric that was being used during his time.
When Hu Jintao took over as the President of China, then he introduced dual language. That was still okay, because you have to learn other languages, but when Xi Jinping came into power, it's now one nation, one language, one culture.
Under this policy, the Chinese Community Party is striking at the very root of our identity, which is our language. Today the Chinese language has to be taught from the preschool Montessori level. The Tibetan language is reduced to just a study of the language. Even if you're proficient in the Tibetan language, it's very difficult to get jobs—