This is the first book in English, or any other Western language, to give a comprehensive overview of education provision and policy in thje Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) during the half century since China asserted control over the region. The author sets her modern history of education in the TAR against the wider context of the political and educational shifts which have taken place in China since the Communist Party cam to power in 1949.

Catriona Bass presents the best information available about each educational sector, focussing on issues such as access, funding, quality of provision, the little-known role of the monasteries in education and the controversial issue of the medium of instruction. She also uses a judicious combination of sources including first-hand observation, interviews with Tibetan refugees and with educationalists in China and Tibet, and official sources in both Chinese and Tibetan. Some of the statistical data here has not been made outside China before.

This unique work is essential reading for Sinologists and for those with a general interest in education in China, as well as those with a specific interest in Tibet