[lg policy] Madison, Wisconsin approves Tibetan as new official minority language

[Harold Schiffman]

American city Madison approves Tibetan as new official minority language
[Saturday, March 03, 2018 18:10]

By Tenzin Dharpo

[image: Representatives of the Wisconsin Tibetan Association and supporters
at the Common Council meeting in Madison city, Wisconsin on Feb. 27, 2018.]
<http://www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx?id=40196&t=1#>
Representatives of the Wisconsin Tibetan Association and supporters at the
Common Council meeting in Madison city, Wisconsin on Feb. 27, 2018.
DHARAMSHALA, Mar. 3: The city of Madison in the state of Wisconsin, Unites
States, has officially approved the Tibetan language as one of the new
minority languages, in a historic and unprecedented development on Tuesday.

The city’s ‘Common Council’ held a meeting on February 27th, with regard to
the approval of compressive language access plan by the City of Madison
where representatives of the Tibetan community presented cases on the
“importance as well as the need to have the Tibetan language recognized due
to the increase in its usage in this city”.

“We are very happy to announce here that the Common Council has unanimously
adopted Tibetan being one of the official minority languages! This has been
a big achievement to the community,” the Wisconsin Tibetan Association
announced on their Facebook page.

The capital city of the State, Madison city, has a long history with the
Tibetan immigrant community dating back a few decades. On Thursday (March
1), the Tibetan community commemorated the 25th anniversary of the
US-Tibetan Resettlement Project. The Dane County Board passed a resolution
recognizing the Wisconsin Tibetan Association and the Dane County Tibetan
community. There is a sizable Tibetan community in the city of Madison
which is the second-most-populous municipality in Wisconsin state.

Tsetan Dolkar, a Tibetan mother of two who has lived in the city for almost
20 years, told *Phayul* that it is a matter of great pride not just for the
Tibetans in Madison but all over, that the Tibetan language which is the
only language that can explain the works of the Nalanda masters and
teachings of the Buddha has been adopted as an official minority language.
“I feel proud that the city which became my home under the resettlement
policy has adopted our language among minority languages. I sincerely thank
the people from our community who have worked so hard in achieving this and
also the city council has given its support.


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 Harold F. Schiffman

Professor Emeritus of
 Dravidian Linguistics and Culture
Dept. of South Asia Studies
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305

Phone:  (215) 898-7475
Fax:  (215) 573-2138

Email:  haroldfs at gmail.com
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/

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