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Losar is almost here, and for Tibetans, this is about more than just the New Year. It’s about survival. They are safeguarding a culture that has endured decades of pressure. From language to religion, these traditions are acts of resistance, keeping Tibetan identity alive. They are fighting to stay who they are.

But China is pushing a different reality. Beijing is not only using soldiers but also controlling the conversation through narrative as well. China wants to rewrite the past. They want to turn a forced takeover into a “liberation”. They are replacing real history with a state-approved myth. Here is how China is trying hard to rewrite Tibet’s story—and why we need to pay attention.

Erasing “Tibet” from the Map

A major shift in the last 5 years has been the push to kill the word “Tibet”. In official documents and news, Beijing now insists on using the Chinese name “Xizang”. This is more than just a name change. By using “Xizang”, China aims to shrink the world’s view of Tibet to only the “Autonomous Region”–all while ignoring large Tibetan communities in Sichuan and Yunnan. Beijing frames the word “Tibet” as a Western colonial label, and at the same time, “Xizang” is presented as a correction. To push this, China launched the “Xizang Panorama” film festival in Nepal in 2025, screening movies that show a happy, developing region while scrubbing any mention of the Tibetan Empire and the 1951 invasion.

Prosperity with Strings Attached

The CCP’s main story is simple: Tibet was “backward” until China brought it into the modern world. State media outlets like Xinhua push the slogan “Prosperity Through Unity”.

The message to Tibetans is clear that every infrastructure project is a gift from the central government that requires political loyalty in return. A US State Department report found that government aid often depends on loyalty. Some families are reportedly told to replace Buddhist altars with portraits of President Xi Jinping to keep their subsidies.

Apart from this, “modernity” has a cost. The cultural institutions have been repurposed to serve this script. Museums in Lhasa now highlight how Tibet was “always” close to China while hiding its unique religious history. Tibetan culture is accepted only as a tourist attraction. It is a museum piece—good for tourists but stripped of its spiritual core.

The Education Machine: Manufacturing ‘New Chinese Citizens’

The most powerful tool in Beijing’s kit is the boarding school system. By January 2026, experts estimate nearly one million Tibetan children—some as young as four—will be living in state-run schools away from their parents.

In these schools, kids are taught that their heritage was “dark and feudal” and that the Party is their real “parent”. This creates a generational gap. By the time these children grow up, they are disconnected from their language and religion. They are trained in the “Three Consciousnesses”, i.e., national consciousness, citizen consciousness, and rule-of-law consciousness. Political indoctrination and a re-education campaign launched by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in Tibet in May 2022 forced nuns and monks to attend re-education classes.

The Influencer ‘Theatre’ and Staged Tours

Beijing has updated its propaganda for the TikTok age. Because people don’t trust stiff news anchors, the CCP now uses “foreign influencers”. These YouTubers get rare access to Tibet to film smiling kids and shiny landmarks, often unaware of the heavy security just off-camera. Meanwhile, real journalists face a wall. In late 2023, a group of 30 foreign journalists was taken on a curated tour of Lhasa and Nyingchi. Reports from the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) noted that these journalists were shown cultural performances and economic hubs, but were strictly kept away from monasteries under a crackdown or boarding schools where children are separated from families. The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China (FCCC) annual reports consistently rank the TAR as the most inaccessible region in China, with journalists facing detention or expulsion for attempting unauthorized reporting.

The Digital Silence

While influencers post happy vlogs, Tibetans inside live under high-tech watch. Apps like WeChat and Douyin (the Chinese TikTok) often ban content in the Tibetan language unless it has Mandarin subtitles. Tibetan-language use is restricted/banned on some apps, especially while live streaming. Intellectuals and writers who try to protect Tibetan culture are silenced. For example, writer Go Sherab Gyatso was sent to 10 years of prison in 2021 for advocating for Tibetan-language education.

Spiritual Sovereignty: The Battle for the 15th Dalai Lama

Beijing is currently hyper-focused on the succession of the 14th Dalai Lama, who celebrated his 90th birthday in July 2025. China’s propaganda outlets have gone into overdrive since the Dalai Lama’s historic statement regarding his succession, that his reincarnation will be found in a free country.

Beijing is terrified of this. In 2023, the Chinese Nation Community Consciousness Building Research Center was inaugurated in Lhasa, Tibet. Chinese authorities and state-aligned religious figures have recently held seminars to push strict protocols for the Dalai Lama’s succession. Beijing maintains that the next Dalai Lama must be chosen through the traditional Golden Urn lottery system, a Qing-dynasty-era ritual that the CCP has codified into modern law to assert authority over reincarnated “living Buddhas”. Beijing’s strategy in Tibet is not just about censoring but replacing the truth.