White paper: Tibetan people suffered from feudal serfdom, darker than medieval Europe

Source: Xinhua | 03-03-2009 08:04

BEIJING, March 2 (Xinhua) -- Tibetan people suffered exploitation and oppression under feudal serfdom and theocratic rule before 1959, a society even darker than medieval Europe, said a Chinese government's white paper here on Monday.

The State Council Information Office released the white paper to mark the 50th anniversary of the region's Democratic Reform. It described the situation in Tibet before 1959 when serfdom was abolished and about 1 million Tibetan serfs were freed.

The upper ruling strata, including local administrative officials, aristocrats and upper-ranking lamas, with the 14th Dalai Lama as its chief representative, accounted for less than 5 percent of the population in Tibet. But they possessed the overwhelming part of the means of production, and monopolized material and cultural resources, the paper said.

Statistics released in the early years of the Qing Dynasty in the 17th century indicate that Tibet had more than 3 million mu (15 mu equals 1 hectare) of farmland, of which 30.9 percent was owned by the local feudal government, 29.6 percent by aristocrats, and 39.5 percent by monasteries and upper-ranking lamas.