Tibetan legislators endorsed a bill on February 9 to designate March 28 as an annual Serfs Emancipation Day, to mark the date on which about 1 million serfs in the region were freed 50 years ago. 　　

　　The bill was submitted to the second annual session of the ninth Regional People's Congress (legislature) for review and was approved by the 382 legislators attending the session unanimously. So "Serfs Emancipation Day" will be observed every year on March 28. 　　

　　On March 28, 1959, the central government announced it would dissolve the aristocratic local government of Tibet and replace it with a Preparatory Committee for establishing the Tibet Autonomous Region.　　

　　The move came after the central government foiled an armed rebellion staged by the Dalai Lama and his supporters, most of whom were slave owners attempting to maintain the serfdom practice in Tibet. 　　

　　That meant the end of serfdom and the abolition of the hierarchic social system characterized by theocracy, with the Dalai Lama as the core of the leadership. About 1 million serfs and slaves, accounting for 90 percent of Tibetan population in the1950s, were thus freed. 　　

　　　　

　　DARK ERA 　　

　　Serfdom in Tibet took shape and developed before the Yuan Dynasty and was formalized after the hierarchic social system characterized by theocracy was established in the 13th century, when the Yuan Dynasty delegated Tibetan religious leaders to administer the region. Serfdom was further developed after the Dalai Lama became the paramount leader of Tibet in the 17th century. 　　

　　Serfs, who accounted for more than 90 percent of the population of old Tibet, were treated as private property by their owners, including the family of the Dalai Lama. The latter owned some 80 percent of production materials -- farm land, pastures and livestock. 　　

　　Serfs were classified into three categories in accordance with their possessions -- Tralpa, Duchung and Nangsan, with the third one being the most miserable who could be sold by his owner as cattle. 　　

　　Landowners included aristocrats, monasteries and government officials. An exhibition by the Museum of Tibet showed that they owned 24 percent, 36.8 percent and 28.9 percent, respectively, of the arable land in the plateau region before 1959. Landowners were entitled to legally insult, punish, buy and sell, give away, whip and even kill their serfs. 　　

　　In 1733, the 7th Dalai Lama controlled 3,150 monasteries and 121,440 households, and serfs had to work for the monasteries despite lack of enough food and proper clothing. 　　

　　Saixim Village, Doilungdeqen County, 50 km northwest of Lhasa, was a manor of the 14th Dalai Lama's family before 1959. Older villagers can still recall that five people were beaten to death and 11 injured in the service of the Dalai Lama's family during a 10-year period. 　　

　　In the Museum, there are about a score of black-and-white photos illustrating the brutality of landowners: slaves' eyes gouged out, fingers chopped off, noses cut and the tendons of their feet removed. 　　

　　In the late 1940s, when the Dalai Lama was to celebrate his birthday, the Tibetan local government issued an order that people should prepare human skulls, blood, skin and guts for the religious ceremony. 　　

　　Celebration for establishment of the Serfs' Emancipation Day was held in Gyangze, Xigaze, where the aristocratic Parlha Manor has been preserved. There, Migmar Dondrup, now 75, served for 11 years as a Nangsan, the lowest of all serfs. 　　

　　Squeezed into a dark, 7 sq m adobe house with his wife and daughter, Migmar was once so starved that he stole some 10 kg of barley. "The landlord got angry after hearing that and had two men whip me in turn," recalled the old man. His legs were tied together and he was struck more than 100 times on the hips. "I couldn't sit. While in bed, I could only lie on my side," he said. It took more than 20 days for the wounds to heal. 　　

　　He was lucky compared with one of his relatives, a groom, who was beaten to death because the landlord believed he wasted fodder when feeding the horses. 　　

　　But the 14th Dalai Lama seemed to have been "ignorant" of these kinds of events. On March 10, 1983, he said in India: "In the past, we Tibetans lived in peace and contentment under the Buddhist light shinning over our snow land." He also said: "Our serf system is different from any other serf system, because Tibet is sparsely populated, and Buddhism, which is for the happiness and benefit of the people, advises people to love each other." 　　

　　　　

　　THE EMANCIPATION 　　

　　After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the central government originally planned to launch democratic reform and set up a Preparatory Committee for the establishment of the Tibet Autonomous Region in 1955, acting on the appeal of local residents to abolish the thousand-year-old serf system. However, on Aug. 18, 1956, Mao Zedong wrote a letter to the 14th Dalai Lama, saying that it was not the right time for Tibet to undertake reform. 　　

　　In March 1959, the Dalai Lama and some of his followers instigated an armed rebellion. The People's Liberation Army soon quelled the rebellion and the Dalai Lama fled to India, where he established a "government in exile". 　　

　　Later, democratic reform was introduced to free the serfs and end their misery. Possessions of participants in the rebellion were confiscated and given to serfs for free. Migmar Dondrup, who now lives in a two-story house of about 400sq m, remembers when the landowners' assets were distributed. 　　

　　He got 1.4 hectares of land and quilts the family had never used, having slept under a piece of goat furs before the reform. Xinza Danzengquzha, 68, a living Buddha in Nagarze, Xigaze, said: "People brought out the contracts and burned them, dancing and singing around the fire." Also a lawmaker, the former aristocrat said he learned a lot in his work after reform, including carpentry and painting. He later worked as an editor and translator of Tibetan books and documents. He studied for three years in Beijing and went abroad several times for research. "My horizons were broadened by reform," he said. Meanwhile, as a living Buddha, he still performs Buddhist rites.　　

　　　　

　　DAY TO REMEMBER 　　

　　The reform didn't mean the abolition of the traditional religion in the Himalayan region. After 50 years have passed, there are 1,700 monasteries open in Tibet, which draw tens of thousands of pilgrims every year. Strolling in the streets of Lhasa, tourists can easily find crowds of lamas and believers chanting Buddhist mantras and praying at monasteries and Buddhist statues. 　　

　　Nobody who experienced those dark days would want to go back. However, that part of history is largely unknown to young people. Had they known the bitterness of the old days, they would cherish their current lives more. That's why we need to commemorate "Serfs' Emancipation Day" and have our descendants remember it forever.