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| "I Absolutely Don't Want to Return to the Past" |
"I absolutely don't want to return to the past," said Sangmu, 84, in a Xinhua interview at an old, dark house his family used to live in more than 50 years ago.
Before the peaceful liberation of Tibet in 1951, Sangmu was only a pulu (a kind of hand-knit wool) knitter at the Pala Manor in Gyangze in Tibet. His old residence has been kept in its original state for people to visit.
The 11.5 square-meter house in which Sangmu's five-member family lived only has damaged jars and pots, a pile of worn cotton wool and a broken canister for containing ghee.
Fifty years ago, Sangmu and 14 other families of serfs, all together a total of 60 people, lived in a courtyard for slaves. They were engaged in pulu knitting, grazing horses, cooking, brewing wine, sewing and other jobs.
"The worst of it was that I was deprived of my freedom by the manor owner, who treated us like horses and cattle and beat us wantonly," Sangmu said.
Half a century ago, serfs like Sangmu accounted for 90 percent of the Tibet's total population. However, the Dalai Lama claimed that despite the lack of materials in the old Tibet, people lived an equal and happy life.
In contrast, the Pala Manor, the residence of the serf owner whom Sangmu served, is also kept intact.
This three-story building has 82 rooms, with a combined floor space of over 5,000 square meters. The whole manor is like a maze.
The manor is also like a treasure house, which stores Ping-Pong balls, badminton racquets, footballs and ice skates -- luxuries which were rare half a century ago. It also has fur clothes, an ox horn full of Qingke (highland barley) wine, whiskey imported from Britain, fine china bowls and imported glass cups, cans and biscuits imported from Britain.
In the sun-room there are skins of tigers and deer, two British- made gramophones, and a gold saddle.
The most expensive among all the exhibits are ornaments made of turquoise, agate and other precious stones.
Today, groups of modern buildings have been erected around the Pala Manor. The residents there are former serfs of the Pala Manor, former slaves and their offspring.
The Sangmu's nine-member family now has 1.73 hectares of farmland, six cows, and herds of horses and sheep. They also have TV sets, sewing machines and other modern household appliances.
The owner of the Pala Manor followed the Dalai Lama when he left the country and later died overseas.
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| -Xinhuanet |
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