Potala Palace rises over Lhasa. by Decroupet Joseph

During the Tibet leg of the Beijing Olympic Torch Relay, torch in hand, renowned Tibetan singer Cedai Drolma arrives at Potala Square in Lhasa. by Jorgo/Xinhua

Now in their 80s, Yungchen and Nyingzen are former serfs who endured cruelty and oppression until the peaceful liberation of Tibet in 1951. by Tudeng/Xinhua

January 19, 2009: Gesang, former serf and present deputy to the People’s Congress of Tibet Autonomous Region, alongside other deputies, votes for a bill designating every March 28 as Serfs Emancipation Day. by Gesang Dawa/Xinhua

January 24, 2009: Tibetan people visit Sakya Monastery for a traditional ceremony praying for good weather and a bumper harvest. by Solang Norbu/Xinhua

Serfs of old Tibet. Their eyes were gouged out by their masters. Xinhua

Exercising their rights, emancipated serfs take an active role in a democratic election. China Pictorial

http://www.chinapictorial.com.cn/en/features/txt/2009-03/05/content_182511.htm

Past and Present

The Tibet of the past was a place of theocracy, like that of Europe’s Middle Ages. The three major categories of feudal lords, government officials, nobles and senior monks, benefited from the long-prevailing system of serfdom, a sort of living hell for the serfs, inflicting upon them cruelty, primitive living conditions and enforced ignorance.

Serfdom developed in Tibet before the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368). Serfs were classified into three categories: Treba (sharecroppers), who rented land from their owners and worked as compulsory laborers; Dujung, who tended a small patch of land allocated by lords and their agent; and Nangsen, serving as household servants for lords for generations with no production materials or personal freedom, and who could be sold by their owners like cattle. In the Tibet of the past, the serf-owning class, only 5 percent of the Tibetan population, owned all cultivated land and grassland and the majority of the livestock. They also, in essence, owned the serfs and slaves, who accounted for 95 percent of the total population. There was no social justice, and the state of serfdom suppressed the life and vitality of Tibetan society, relegating the region to a sort of dark age.

About 50 kilometers from the city proper of Lhasa, in Shexing Village of Doilungdeqen County, is the former manor of the family of Dainzin Gyaco, the 14th Dalai Lama. Today, senior local villagers still recall the fact that within a short period of 10 years, five serfs were beaten to death and 11 were permanently disabled.

In the Museum of Tibet there are more than 10 black-and-white photographs documenting the brutality of landowners: The eyes of slaves were gouged out, their fingers chopped off, noses cut off, and the tendons of their ankles stripped away.

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

An archived letter written by a Tibetan nobleman to another nobleman in the 1940s reads: “We gambled the day before yesterday and I lost three serfs, seven horses and 20 silver coins to you. I am sending them over today.” These words, disregarding basic humanity and human rights, evidences the fact that back then the status of serfs was like that of livestock and currency, and their personal freedom was not a consideration.

Old Tibet was a region devoid of democracy and human rights, and the ruling class held the power of life and death over the serfs. In addition to a large volume of Tibetan and Han-language written materials, this sad state of society was also observed and recorded by many foreigner witnesses.

British expert Edmund Candler described in his book The Unveiling of Lhasa that “the monks are the overlords, the peasantry their serfs.” The poor and the small tenant farmers “work ungrudgingly for their spiritual masters, to whom they owe a blind devotion.” In his book Tibet: Past and Present, Charles Bell described that in old Tibet ownership class and high ranking monks occupied important positions in the government, held a tremendous expanse of property, and the power to inflict all forms of punishments upon the tenant farmers.

After the quelling of the armed rebellion in 1959, the Chinese central government, in compliance with the wishes of the Tibetan people, implemented democratic reform in Tibet and abolished this extremely decadent and dark form of feudal serfdom. A million serfs and slaves were emancipated. They were no longer regarded as the personal property of their owners, who previously could use them for transactions, transfer, mortgage for a debt or exchange, or exact from them their toil. From then on, they gained the right to personal freedom. Old Tibet’s codes have been abrogated. Citizens are no longer divided into three classes and nine ranks. Barbarous punishments were prohibited and privately established prisons have all been dismantled. New China’s Constitution and laws guarantee that every Tibetan enjoys the right to subsistence and personal safety.

The Democratic Reform abolished ownership as a means of production by serf-owners. The farmland originally occupied by those serf-owners involved in the armed rebellion was distributed free to landless serfs and slaves. A policy of redemption was introduced with regard to the land and other means of production of serf-owners who did not participate in the rebellion. The 60,000 hectares of land and more than 820,000 head of livestock of the 1,300 serf-owners and their agents, who did not participate in the rebellion, were redeemed by the state.

In 1961, a general election, the first of its kind in Tibetan history, was held across Tibet. For the first time, the former serfs and slaves were able to enjoy democratic rights as their own masters. Since the founding of the Tibet Autonomous Region in 1965, Tibetans have exercised their rights bestowed by the Constitution and laws to elect and be elected. The governmental organs of the autonomous region have been elected and led mainly by Tibetans and people of other ethnic groups.

Since democratic reform abolished the feudal serfdom of old Tibet, the Tibetan people, like the people of all other ethnic groups throughout China, have become the masters of their state and society, with the political rights enjoyed by all citizens as stipulated in China’s Constitution and law.

As masters of the new socialist Tibet, the former serfs now fully enjoy the rights endowed by the country’s Constitution and the Law on Ethnic Regional Autonomy. All citizens in Tibet who have reached the age of 18 have the right to vote and stand for election, regardless of ethnic group, race, sex, occupation, family background, religious belief, education, property status or duration of residence. Through the people’s congresses elected by them, they choose their own deputies and exercise the power to administer state and local affairs.

Today, 70.42 percent of all regional-level officials are Tibetan and of other ethnic minorities. Within the 74 counties, cities and prefectures and 682 towns, 86 percent of officials are Tibetan and of other ethnic minorities.

In 2008, 95 percent of electorates in Tibet participated in direct elections at the regional, prefecture (city), county and town (township) levels, with a 100 percent voting rate in some places. Tibetan and other ethnic minority deputies account for more than 80 percent of the total number of deputies to the people’s congresses at regional and prefectural levels, and the percentage is higher than 90 percent at county and township levels. Today, Tibetan and other ethnic minority people constitute 77.97 percent of the government staff at regional, prefecture (city) and county levels.

Infrastructure and Inclusion

June 25, 2006: Alongside the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, a herder in Damxung County places a jovial phone call to a friend. by Pubu Tashi/Xinhua

Lamas race their virtual vehicles. by Gesang Dawa/Xinhua

Second-grade students at Lhasa No.2 Primary School read English in class. In addition to the adoption of a bilingual (Tibetan-Han) teaching system in all the primary schools throughout the autonomous region, foreign language courses are also offered in some more developed areas. by Wu Zhonglin

A Tibetan woman talks on a public phone in downtown Lhasa. Xinhua

April 9, 2006: Children in a Dagze County village wash up with running water. During the Tenth Five-Year Plan period (2001-2005), prior problems with providing drinking water to 58,000 people in Tibet were solved. by Gesang Dawa/Xinhua

Newly constructed asphalt roads in Nagqu Prefecture, 4,000 meters in altitude, have greatly improved local transportation conditions. by Joerg F. Mueller

Tibetan children learn to play the keyboard. by Zhao Yanzhi

Angchen, a resident of Xigaze, the second largest city in Tibet, has recently been busy remodeling her home. During a noon break, carrying a pitcher, she stepped just outside the house to a running water tap, preparing to brew buttered tea for the workers.

“In the past, drinking water was not easily accessible. We had to wait in line at a few taps blocks away, and new houses were not being built,” Angchen recalled. “Now running water is available to all the households, and this is because of the central government and the Shanghai citizens.”

In the 1990s, as one of the 62 aid projects in Tibet, a water supply and sewage project, with the assistance from Shanghai City, was carried out in Xigaze. Including the construction of a plant daily supplying 20,000 tons of tap water, and benefiting 80,000 local residents and providing favorable conditions for the further development of the city, the project brought an end to the city’s history of severe water scarcity and uncontrolled sewage. In August 1995, when the project was completed and put into operation, the local citizens sang and danced to extend their gratitude.

Over the past half-century, to improve the backward social and economic conditions of old Tibet and enhance the region’s capability of sustained development, the central government and the regional government formulated a series of policies and dedicated much manpower, materials and funds to the development of infrastructure. Professionals, capital, and materials then flooded to Tibet from the rest of the country, and by merging with the local Tibetan people, these formed a powerful force driving the pace of societal progress on the plateau.

Old Tibet had almost no industry in the modern sense of the word, just a minor handicraft industry and backward agriculture and animal husbandry. Thanks to the central government’s policies and support from other parts of the country, Tibet saw the emergence of modern industry and transportation facilities in the 1950s.

Since the implementation of reform and opening-up policies, the central government has attached great importance to the development of western regions, especially the TAR. From the 1980s to the beginning of this century, the central government held four special meetings to assure future progress in Tibet, during which a total of 222 key construction projects were designated to develop crucial infrastructure, like energy, transportation, postal services and telecommunications, as well as in all fields related to the Tibetan people’s livelihood, including industry, agriculture, water conservancy, culture, education, and health care. According to the 11th Five-Year Plan of the TAR, by 2010, at a total investment of more than 100 billion yuan, 180 projects will be constructed in Tibet.

Concurrent with the improvement of the hard infrastructure, remarkable achievements have been made in the construction of social programs. Incorporating distinctive Tibetan characteristics, Tibetan medicine and pharmacology forms a unique part of traditional Tibetan culture. Early in the 8th Century, the first-ever academy of Tibetan medicine was established in Tibet, which later produced a thousand professionals in Tibetan medicine and greatly promoted the development of traditional Tibetan medicine and pharmacology. Yet, education in medicine declined, and by the mid-20th Century only three small official medical facilities remained in Lhasa, with less than 100 medical practitioners mainly serving high officials, the ownership class and senior monks.

After the democratic reform of 1959, thanks to the support of the central government, traditional Tibetan medicine began to revive, with a number of hospitals and academies of Tibetan medicine established in Tibet and other places in China. In 1989, based on the Tibetan Medicine School of Tibet University, the TAR College of Tibetan Medicine was established. It was the world’s largest school of higher learning specializing in Tibetan medicine and pharmacology.

The revitalization of Tibetan medicine represents a facet of social progress in Tibet. Over the past 50 years, since democratic reform, the issue of livelihood, concerning all aspects, from health care to education, housing and employment, has remained a top priority of the government.

A comprehensive system of education was put in place to provide schooling for children at all levels, from kindergarten to primary and middle schools, as well as colleges for both young people and adults. In the last half a century, the government attached importance to ensuring the Tibetan people’s right to learn and use the Tibetan language. It is stipulated that all schools must stress the teaching and use of Tibetan. A bilingual (Tibetan-Han) teaching system has been adopted by all the primary schools in farming and pastoral areas, and in some urban primary schools, with the major courses being taught in Tibetan. Tibetan-Han teaching has also been adopted in high schools. Moreover, courses in the Tibetan language have been opened at Tibetan high schools in the inland areas of China. In the matriculation examinations for institutions of higher learning and secondary vocational schools, Tibetan is a subject of examination and the score is factored into the total score. Teaching of the Tibetan language has been popularized at all schools in Tibet, to an unprecedented level.

The popularization of bilingual teaching has enabled nearly all Tibetan students to be able to speak both the Tibetan and Han languages. While inheriting the honest and enthusiastic character of prior generations, today’s Tibetan youngsters look to a broader horizon and a brighter future than their seniors. This is largely attributed to the rapid development of modern education in the region.

After the introduction of reform and opening-up, the state established Tibetan classes in large inland cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu and Chongqing. These provide a favorable environment in which the children of Tibetan herdsmen and farmers may be educated and prosper in inland areas. To promote education in Tibet, the central government has adopted many preferential policies. Measures have been taken to cover all tuition as well as food and boarding expenses for students in the stage of compulsory education from the region’s agricultural and pastoral families.

To promote the development of modern science and technology in Tibet, the state instituted a series of policies and regulations and injected a substantial sum of capital. Brilliant achievements have been made in terms of the detection of cosmic rays, highland atmosphere study, in-depth exploration of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, prevention and control of geological disasters, like mud-rock flow, and in the development and utilization of clean energy sources, like terrestrial heat and solar energy. Also advanced was the practice of high-altitude medical treatment and procedures.

In the last 50 years, education, public health and cultural projects have developed steadily, with illiteracy completely eliminated among working-aged people. Free medical health care in agricultural and pastoral areas benefits farmers and herdsmen across the region. The average life expectancy of Tibetan people has increased from 35.5 years before democratic reform in 1959 to 67 years today.

The Qinghai-Tibet Railway has promoted the economic growth of Tibet. During construction, special attention was paid to protecting and preserving the environment. Courtesy of Ministry of Railways

Along with staff members of the China Railway Group Ltd., Tibetan farmers plant sod to conserve the environment. by Tong Guoqiang

Pakya, a farmer in Dagze County, drives a tractor loaded with highland barley to a processing plant. by Jorgo/Xinhua

In Doilungdeqen County, Tibetan boys wave to a train along the Qinghai-Tibet Railway. by Jorgo/Xinhua

Five households in Nyaba Village, Doilungdeqen County, have been designated as models in the construction of new ecological countryside. by Gesang Dawa/Xinhua

Solar energy is widely used by Tibetans for heating and cooking. by Brigitte Hiss

A shopping center in Lhasa. by Cheng Weidong

Economy and Environment

The formidable mountain ranges surrounding Tibet screen the plateau from the outside world. For a long period in the past, the closed, tough local geographical conditions and backward social development severely hindered productivity, blocked communication and information, and caused a shortage of scientists and technicians. Extreme poverty was the first challenge faced by the central government after Tibet’s democratic reform, and the eradication of poverty became one of the ultimate goals of the government.

In the 1980s, after the introduction of economic reform, the TAR government established the Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and instituted a support policy to better enable farmers to cultivate land independently. Thereafter, the herdsmen were able to own the domestic animals which they raised, and handle their own management, a policy which remained unchanged for a long while. Farm and livestock products were sold mainly through the market. Farmers and herdsmen were exempt from agricultural and livestock taxes and, accordingly, their enthusiasm for production was greatly enhanced. In 1984, a new type of poverty alleviation, specifying object, project, capital and benefit, was launched in more than 600 towns and townships across the region.

After more than a decade of effort, in May 1996, Gongbo Gyamda County became the first among the 18 previously poverty-stricken counties in the autonomous region to be certified as having risen from that status. At the end of last century, the entire region essentially realized a historic leap out of poverty.

Since democratic reform, Tibet has focused on ensuring social justice and improving the overall quality of life. According to data compiled and released by Damzeng Lhunchu, deputy director of the Social and Economic Research Institute of China Tibetology Research Center, Tibetan farmers and herders earned virtually no income before the democratic reform. After, per capita net income each year exceeded: 175 yuan in 1978; 500 yuan in 1985; 1,000 yuan in 1997; and 2,000 yuan in 2005. In 2008, the figure climbed to 3,170 yuan. Over the last seven years, on average, the per capita net income of Tibetan farmers and herders increased by 12.9 percent annually.

Today, visitors to Lhasa often marvel at the comfortable and convenient modern life enjoyed by Tibetan people, especially considering the high altitude. By the end of 2007, there were about 50,000 private cars registered in Lhasa alone, and the per capita living space of urban residents in Tibet had reached 32.7 square meters. Brick houses have largely replaced the previous wood and earth structures. Residential quarters of varying grades are springing up across the region. Modern electrical appliances, such as color TVs, cell phones, washing machines and refrigerators, are commonplace in ordinary Tibetan households.

Economic development in Tibet, fortunately, did not advance at the cost of environment, thanks to the traditional Tibetan respect for nature and the regional government’s efforts to conserve the eco-environment. Governing the protection of environment and natural resources in accordance with the actual local conditions, the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of the TAR and the people’s government of the autonomous region have published a series of local laws and regulations, as well as administrative rules and systems. In 1990, the TAR Environmental Protection Committee was established to guarantee the effective enforcement of the laws and regulations. In addition, with state investment, a modern-equipped environmental monitoring station was installed in Tibet, and an environmental monitoring system to cover the entire region is taking shape.

Exceptional geological assets graced Tibet with abundant geothermal resources. Today, hydropower stations distributed around the region and the world-famous Yangbajain Geothermal Power Station deliver 24-hour clean energy to Tibetan households. With the “Sunlight Program,” implemented throughout the region, Tibet remains at the forefront in the development and utilization of solar energy in China.

Thanks to the effective modernized supervision and evaluation of the environment, reinforced environmental legislation, and the considerable input of manpower and materials, large expanses of primeval forests are well-preserved, Thus, Tibet is one of China’s leading autonomous regions / provinces in terms of forest resources, with a forest coverage of 11.31 percent. Tibet is also a leader in the nation in the number of wildlife species and the area of various wetlands, 90 percent of which remain unspoiled. More than 80 million hectares of meadows and 200,000 hectares of arable land are free from industrial pollution. All of the 1,600 lakes along the Tibetan plateau remain in their primeval, unspoiled state. Even the city of Lhasa, comparably more populous and industrial, has the least pollution and the best environment among China’s regional / provincial capitals. To date, the bodies of water in Tibet remain mostly unpolluted, and no single case of environmental pollution has ever occurred in the region.

Employing traditional techniques, a lama in a monastery creates a Thangka painting. by Cheng Weidong

A Buddhist from Nepal on a pilgrimage tour to Lake Namtso. by Yang Junjiang/Xinhua

Second-grade students at Lhasa No.2 Primary School read English in class. In addition to the adoption of a bilingual (Tibetan-Han) teaching system in all the primary schools throughout the autonomous region, foreign language courses are also offered in some more developed areas. by Wu Zhonglin

A lama studies. by Tang Tao

On Lhasa’s Barkor Street, a wide variety of Tibetan handicrafts are sold. by Pan Suofei

Lamas take photos at Jokhang Monastery, Lhasa. by Shi Yongting

A bustling street scene in Lhasa. CFP

Religion and Respect

Each year, during the several winter months of farming off-season, numerous Buddhist followers, from all corners of the agricultural and pastoral areas of Tibet, pilgrimage to the holy city of Lhasa. After the season of work, before the arrival of the Tibetan New Year, the most important objective for devout Buddhists is to pay homage to Buddha and pray for good wishes.

Among the swirls of burning incense curling upwards and the resonant chanting of sutras, the Buddhist faithful will worship on bended knees, rotate a prayer wheel, or show reverence with palms joined together. Walking along the streets and lanes, visitors are often impressed by the expressions of piety and reverence exhibited by the locals. The acts of sincere homage represent the deep-rooted religious belief of an ethnic group. Reflected in their eyes are respect for life and the aspirations for a beautiful future.

To satisfy the needs of religious believers, great state effort went into the preservation of monasteries, cultural relics and sites of historical significance. Potala Palace, Jokhang Temple, and the Drepung, Sera, Ganden, Tashilhunpo, Sakya and many other monasteries are now under the protection of the state and autonomous region – each of which regularly allocate large sums for structural repair. Since the 1980s, more than 700 million yuan and a great quantity of gold and silver have been appropriated from the central and local revenues for repairing a large number of religious venues. The murals, sculptures, statues, Thangka paintings, sutras, ritual implements and Buddhist shrines are well protected and were renovated. A large quantity of religious documents and classics have been collected, collated and published.

Buddhist associations have been set up in the autonomous region, as well as in its seven prefectures (cities). The Tibet branch of the Buddhist Association of China runs the Tibetan Buddhism Academy, Tibetan-Language Sutra Printing Shop and Tibetan-language journal Tibetan Buddhism. To train senior Tibetan Buddhist personnel, the state established the China Tibetan-Language Academy of Buddhism, and more than 100 living Buddhas and eminent monks from Tibet have studied there. Various Buddhist activities are carried out in a traditional way — from sutra studies and debates to the conferring of academic degrees and ordination. As a unique way to pass on Tibetan Buddhism, the living Buddha reincarnation system was recognized by the state, and 40-odd living Buddhas have been approved in accordance with religious rituals and historical practice.

Religious activities in Tibet are rich in content and diverse in form. To date, more than 40 traditional religious festivals have resumed. Believers are free to take part in the Sakadawa Festival, Shoton (Yogurt) Festival and other religious activities. Sutra streamers, Mani mounds and masses of believers engaging in religious activities are seen across Tibet. Many believers have sutra rooms or shrines in their homes, and they often circumambulate (walk in a circle clockwise around) monasteries and other sacred places, go on pilgrimages, or invite monks or nuns to conduct Buddhist services.

Collectively, the protection, inheritance and development of the intangible Tibetan cultural heritage is also on the agenda. Since the 1970s, a group of institutions have been established at the regional and prefecture (city) levels to rescue, sort out, and conduct research into Tibetan cultural heritage. They have conducted extensive surveys on Tibetan folk literature and art, collected, sorted out and studied literature and art materials widely spread among Tibetans in aspects of drama, dance, music, ballads, folk songs, proverbs and folk tales. These efforts have resulted in the collection and collation of about 30 million words of written materials in the Tibetan and Han languages, more than 1,000 academic papers on traditional Tibetan culture, and more than 30 research works on literature and art. Since 2003, the central government and the People’s Government of the TAR have launched and implemented a project for intangible cultural heritage protection. Extensive and thorough investigations have been conducted throughout the region to effectively save and preserve endangered cultural heritage items.

Meanwhile, today’s Tibet embraces modern life. Barkor Street is a 1,500-meter oval road centering around Jokhang Temple, and along this oldest street in Tibet’s history of city construction, hundreds of shops and more than 1,000 mobile stands sell a wide variety of commodities made in Tibet, the rest of China, and even the South Asian countries of India and Nepal. From daily necessities to religious articles, and from precious jewelry to new and antique works of art, ethnic commodities dazzle visiting tourists.

In the tide of a commodity economy, Barkor Street businesspeople have changed their traditional mode of merchandising and learned to bargain with prospective buyers in different languages. Along the street, mingled with the chanting of sutras from nearby monasteries, is the enticing hawking of merchants belonging to the Tibetan, Hui, and Han ethnic groups, as well as from South Asia.

In recent years, especially after the Qinghai-Tibet Railway went into operation, Tibet’s cultural exchange with the outside world was enhanced in terms of quality and volume. A growing number of tourists from Chinese inland areas and from foreign countries appear on Barkor Street. The video cameras and prayer wheels, the visual contrast of jeans and monk’s robes, and the meeting of pilgrims, travelers, monks, and merchants of varying races, languages and religious beliefs, form an extraordinarily unique, movable feast for the senses. All come together to compose a remarkable and amiable street scene unlike any other in the world.