Dorje Tseten (), also Duojie Caidan (); November 1926, Huangzhong - July 6, 2013,

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

) is a Chinese scholar, historian and politician of Tibetan ethnicity. He was chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) before becoming the first director of the China Tibetology Research Center.

Early life

Tseten was born in November 1926 in Huangzhong County, Qinhai Province. In September 1948, Tseten graduated from

Beijing Normal University Beijing Normal University (BNU) () is a public university in Haidian, Beijing, Haidian, Beijing, China. It is affiliated with the Ministry of Education (China), Ministry of Education of China, and co-funded by the Ministry of Education and the B ...

with a degree in education.

Career

He was one of the few Tibetan communists, a group of scientists and teachers, who were sent to Tibet to extol the benefits of Marxism-Leninism. The group arrived

Chamdo Chamdo, officially Qamdo () and also known in Chinese as Changdu (), is a prefecture-level city in the eastern part of the Tibet Autonomous Region, China. Its seat is the town of Chengguan in Karuo District. Chamdo is Tibet's third largest c ...

early in the winter of 1951. On 28 March 1959, he was appointed as a member of the preparatory committee for establishing the TAR. During the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a Social movement, sociopolitical movement in the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). It was launched by Mao Zedong in 1966 and lasted until his de ...

, he went into hiding. In 1981, he became Vice President of the People's Congress of the TAR. From March 1983 to June 1985, he was one of the secretaries of the Communist Party in Tibet. From April 1983 to 1985, he was chairman of the People's Committee of TAR. In 1986, he was removed from his post in Tibet, following a change in the Communist Party's position on Tibet after the 1987-1989 protests. He was appointed as the director of China Tibetology Research Center in Beijing, and he remained in this position until 2000. He retired in April 2004, at the age of 78. He died on 6 July 2013 in Beijing.

Views on Tibetan education

In 1991, he published his book on education in Tibet, describing Tibetan language education as a crucial issue given "strong differences of opinion". He attributed the absence of Tibetan education during the Cultural Revolution to the rapid expansion of education, the shortage of teachers and textbooks, and the influence of leftist ideology. It emphasized the importance of Tibetan in the development of education and economy. He reported that in a 1982 pilot project in three high schools in

Lhasa Lhasa, officially the Chengguan District of Lhasa City, is the inner urban district of Lhasa (city), Lhasa City, Tibet Autonomous Region, Southwestern China. Lhasa is the second most populous urban area on the Tibetan Plateau after Xining ...

Gyantse Gyantse, officially Gyangzê Town (also spelled Gyangtse; ; ), is a town located in Gyantse County, Shigatse Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region, China. It was historically considered the third largest and most prominent town in Tibet (after Lha ...

, and Lhokha to compare the respective merits of Tibetan vs Han, classes taught in Tibetan at Gyantsé averaged twice as many exam marks as the classes taught in Han. The project was discontinued due to lack of books, qualified teachers and mismanagement. He recommended that Han not be taught in primary schools in rural areas and the use of Tibetan in education gradually be applied to middle school.

Notes

: 1.Dorje Tseten belongs to the first generation of Tibetan communist leaders since the Chinese military intervention in Tibet, a generation mainly from the eastern Tibetan regions of

Kham Kham (; ) is one of the three traditional Tibet, Tibetan regions, the others being Domey also known as Amdo in the northeast, and Ü-Tsang in central Tibet. The official name of this Tibetan region/province is Dotoe (). The original residents of ...

and

Amdo Amdo ( �am˥˥.to˥˥ zh , c = 安多 , p = Ānduō ), also known as Domey (), is one of the three traditional Tibetan regions. It encompasses a large area from the Machu (Yellow River) to the Drichu (Yangtze). Amdo is mostly coterminous wi ...

, where Chinese presence preexisted. This group was composed of aristocrats and other Tibetans co-opted to official positions, and Tibetans from eastern Tibet who joined the Communist Party in the early days and came to occupy important positions in the Tibet Autonomous Region (RAT). Most leaders of this group later suffered severe persecution during the

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tseten, Dorje Tibetan historians 1926 births 2013 deaths People from Xining Historians from Qinghai People's Republic of China politicians from Qinghai Chinese Communist Party politicians from Qinghai