Special Report: Serfs Emancipation Day

    BEIJING, March 10 (Xinhua) -- To Tibetan car dealer Purbu, the Dalai Lama always seems unhappy when Tibetans are really happy.

    When knowing the recent claim of the monk that Tibetans are becoming more unhappy about the government, Purbu scorned "it is all imaginary and false."

    "How can Tibetans be unhappy when the economy develops so fast with the support from the central government?" said Purbu, a car dealing company manager in Lhasa.

    The deputy to the National People's Congress (NPC), the top legislature, made the remarks on the sidelines of the annual NPC session, referring to figures in a white paper on the situation in Tibet, which was released by the State Council Information Office last week.

    Since 1994, the local GDP has grown at an annual rate of 12.8 percent on average, higher than the national average for the same period, partly thanks to 313 billion yuan (45.7 billion U.S. dollars) offered by the central government and other parts of the country, the white paper said.

    Tibet also saw its GDP soar from 174 million yuan in 1959 to 39.591 billion yuan last year.

    To Purbu, what is more important behind the figures is the truth he witnesses every day that every Tibetan shares the fruits of the robust economic growth, a dream their ancestors could hardly imagine in the times of the Dalai Lama, when more than 90 percent of the Tibetan population were slaves or serfs.

    "GENOCIDE" FROM THIN AIR

    NPC deputy Norde, an expert from Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Golog of Qinghai Province who studies the Tibetan epic Gesar, believes it is the best time in history in the conservation of Tibetan culture.

    Norde refuted the Dalai Lama's claim of a culture "genocide" in Tibetan areas as unfounded.

    He said the central government has devoted large manpower and material resources and set up special institutions to save and study the Tibetan epic Gesar and the Mongolian epics Jangar and Kirgiz Manas, commonly hailed as China's three major ethnic heroic epics.

    Some parts of the epic Gesar, with at least 500,000 lines, have been translated into Chinese, French, English and Japanese, according to Norde.

    Norde said the country is also trying to make Gesar a world intangible culture heritage so as to better protect the epic known as the Oriental Iliad after the Greek epic poem by Homer.

    Lawmaker Zhang Guofu, a mushroom grower from the Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Garze of Sichuan Province, said even in the remotest villages, the signs of villagers' committees are written in the Tibetan language.

    Zhang said some local students from the Han and Yi ethnic groups in his hometown have complained "unfairness" over preferences given to Tibetan students in the college-entrance exam.

    Zhang's opinion was shared by lawmaker Nyangmonshan. The midwife from the Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Huangnan in Qinghai Province said bilingual Tibetan-Chinese teaching is adopted in all schools in Huangnan, and Tibetan medicine and drugs are becoming more popular in the country.

    STABILITY CONCERNS

    Despite satisfaction with the development in Tibetan areas, the lawmakers said they are concerned about stability because of separatist activities.

    "It is not a secret that the Dalai Lama clique attempt to sabotage stability in Garze," Zhang said.

    In the 1990s, Zhang recalled, some monks and local residents were instigated by the Dalai clique to bomb bridges, government buildings and even crowded commercial plazas in Sichuan Province.

    The farmer said he could not understand why some foreign journalists insist presenting a totally different picture of Tibetan areas from what local people see.

    "Some journalists come to Tibetan areas only focusing on the anti-government sentiment by a few people. These journalists do not report the mainstream," Zhang said.

    Purbu said the Lhasa riot last March, in which 18 civilians and a police officer were killed, gave the people a lesson that their well-being could only be protected when the region enjoys stability.

    He hailed President Hu Jintao's remarks on stability in Tibet, which was given Monday, prior to the 50th anniversary of the foiling of an armed rebellion on March 10, 1959 staged by the upper ruling class in Tibet to preserve serfdom and theocracy.

    "We must reinforce the solid Great Wall for combating separatism and safeguarding national unity, so that Tibet, now basically stable, will enjoy lasting peace and stability," said Hu.

    Tibet will mark the 50th anniversary of the abolishment of serfdom and the theocratic regime of the Dalai Lama on March 28.

    The March 10 rebellion 50 years ago prompted the central government's decision that a democratic reform should be carried out immediately to demolish the entire old system led by the Dalai Lama.

    The Preparatory Committee of Tibet Autonomous Region replaced the Gaxag government and set out to lead the reform.

    From 1959 to until 1966, 1 million slaves were granted land, houses and their freedom.