Special Report: Serfs Emancipation Day

    LHASA, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Tibet will distribute two sets of insignia to mark Serfs Emancipation Day -- which falls on March 28-- and the 50th anniversary of democratic reform, the region's Communist Party office said Friday.

    The designs have been finalized, the public affairs department of the Tibet Autonomous Regional Committee of the Communist Party of China said.

    The insignia will be ready for distribution well before March 28, said the Tibet Autonomous Regional Office for Commemorative Activities of the 50th Anniversary of Democratic Reform in Tibet, which organized the design of the new insignia.

    Both designs have a red background, said the office.

    For the insignia to mark Serfs Emancipation Day, the design features the five-star, red national flag, along with the sun and snow-capped mountains.

    The second design features a hada, a long piece of silk used as a greeting gift among Tibetans, as well as the image of a snow lotus, a rare herb that only grows on high mountains in west China. The lotus is used in Tibetan medicine for diseases such as rheumatism. This insignia also includes the national flag and the sun.

    The designs were done by Dainzin Nangyai of Tibetans' Publishing House, according to the office.

    Tibetan legislators endorsed a motion in January designating March 28 as Serfs Emancipation Day, to commemorate the emancipation of millions of serfs and slaves in Tibet 50 years ago.

    On March 10, 1959, the central government halted an armed rebellion, mounted by the Dalai Lama and his supporters with foreign help. Meanwhile, the Chinese government launched democratic reform to end the feudal serfdom system and liberate serfs and slaves.