A: There are people from the West who compare Tibet to the Shangri-La of The Lost
Horizon, written by British novelist James Hilton in 1933, likening this region
to a utopian Land of Peach Blossoms. They find it inconceivable that, as late
as the 1950s, Tibet still functioned as a feudal serfdom system under a theocratic
dictatorship, in a manner similar to the integration of religion and politics
in Medieval Europe.
Tibet's feudal serfdom, as practiced in early feudal society,
and carrying with it many traces of slavery, was an exploitative, inhuman system.
In terms of the nature of the political system in force in Tibet, its distinguishing
features were the combination of religious authority and political power. The
Dalai Lama was both the religious and political head of Tibet. The local government
was composed of the most high-ranking monks and nobles, who represented the interests
of the serf-owning class. Serfs and slaves, then accounting for 95 percent of
the Tibetan population, were owned by the three estate-holders (officialdom, monasteries
and nobles) for life, and, as such, had no vestige of personal freedom. The feudal
lords could beat ,abuse, punish, sell, present as gifts, imprison and even kill
slaves with impunity. When slaves met for the first time, they did not exchange
their own names, but those of their masters. According to Tibet's regional code,
society was arbitrarily divided into classed and ranks, and people were divided
into three social classes - upper, middle and lower-each class having its own
further subdivision into these three ranks. According to the law regarding compensation
for the life of a murdered person, it was stipulated that "people are classified
into different ranks and classes, and the value of any one life is estimated accordingly."
The value of a person from the upper echelons, for example, a prince or Living
Buddha, was equal to the price of gold of his body weight, while that of a person
of lowest class could be equal to the price of a straw rope. Tibet's judicial
system meted out horrifying punishments, such as gouging out the eyes, cutting
off the noses or ears, and amputating the hands and feet of offenders.
Regarding
the economy, the three major estate-holders, who accounted for less than 5 percent
of Tibet's total population, were almost exclusive owners of arable land and grassland,
forest, and livestock. Serfs and slaves, on the other hand, who made up over 95
percent of the total population, were deprived of all means of production. Serfs
had no land or freedom, and were completely dependent on estate-holders for their
material survival. Masters controlled the birth, death and marriage rights of
their serfs, so when serfs married, agreement between their masters had first
to be obtained. Children of serfs were registered the day they were born and designated
as slaves for life.
Regarding societal conditions under such a system, Tibet's
economy and culture remained stagnant for centuries, and its population declined
from several million at its peak to only 1 million in 1951. Epidemic diseases
often spread unchecked, and life expectancy was only 35.5 years. The Tibetan ethnic
group, having formerly created a splendid culture, had an illiteracy rate of over
90 percent. Before the democratic reform in 1959, out of Lhasa's 37,000 population,
4,000 to 5,000 were beggars, while in Xigaze, with a population of less than 10,000,
there were 2,000 to 3,000 beggars. Homeless people often died on the street.
Historical records indicate that the basic human rights of the people in old Tibet
were non-existent. The Dalai Lama, now in exile, was the religious and political
ruler of old Tibet, and therefore responsible for the sufferings of the people. |
