Hey guys,

I'm wondering if any of the unis in Kunming teach Tibetan? Also, any ideas/ recommendations on schools in Dali, Shangrila or elsewhere in Yunnan? Maybe Sichuan and Qinghai are better options?

Thanks!
T

Do you speak a little basic Tibetan? Its difficult to study Tibetan in Yunnan. Since Diqin/Shangrila speak a different Tibetan dialect. Each province almost all cities speak differently. They dont understand each other. Probably the Minority University in Yunnan teaches Tibetan. The Best option is to study at Tibet University in Lhasa, Xizang. Sichuan University also teaches Tibetan. If you just want to stay in Yunnan then maybe you could ask a Tibetan monk.

Hey jey79, thanks for that! Yes, I understand the issue of dialects at work but presume that the unis teach standard Tibetan. The reason I ask about Yunnan and Sichuan is because I have a Confucius Institute Scholarship to use and unfortunately it does not cover studies in Tibet University. My impression is that beyond TAR, Sichuan and Qinghai are the best places to study Tibetan... but I like Yunnan a lot and it was interested to know if there were some programs there. Thanks for the info!

What did you do to study Tibetan in the end, Phantompineapple?

As far as I know Yunnan Minzu University offers Tibetan language classes.

The Southwest Uni for Nationalities in Chengdu has a Tibetan language program, but since there are so few students and thus the student / teacher ratio will always be small, it ends up being very expensive. The classes are often one-on-one, or maybe a handful of students. I don't really know but my impression is that it's one of the better Tibetan programs in China.