File photo shows an old man begging on a street along with his handicapped son in Tibet, 1958. (Xinhua)
BEIJING, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- Old Tibet was dark and backward as even in the 1950s, it was still a society ruled by feudal serfdom under theocracy, according to a white paper issued by the Chinese government Sunday.
Having existed for several centuries, this wretched system stifled human rights and destroyed human qualities, the white paper titled "Successful Practice of Regional Ethnic Autonomy in Tibet" said.
It was thus the most backward mode of human society under which the people had no democratic, economic, social, or cultural rights, and their basic human rights were not protected. Old Tibet was a far cry from modern civilization, according to the paper.
File photo shows a serf family living in the stable of the upper class. They had to work for the owner to pay the rent. (Xinhua)
In old Tibet, the three major estate-holders and their agents accounted for only five percent of Tibet' s population, but they owned almost all of Tibet's farmland, pastures, forests, mountains, rivers, and beaches, as well as most of the livestock.
Serfs suffered three kinds of exploitations, including land rent, corvee labor - a broad term covering not only corvee, but taxes and levies, and rents for land and livestock, and usury.
File photo shows a serf whose foot had been chopped off by the leader of his tribe in Tibet before the liberation. (Xinhua)
Feudal serfdom under theocracy seriously obstructed social progress in Tibet. At the time of the peaceful liberation in 1951, there was almost no trace of modern industry, commerce, science and technology, education, culture, or health care, the paper said.
Things began to change when democratic reform was carried out in 1959 and regional ethnic autonomy came into practice in 1965. Under new socialist system, Tibet achieved historic leaps and bounds in its economic and social development.
As part of the Chinese nation, the Tibetan people fulfill the right to participate equally in the management of state affairs; they are thus managers of local social affairs and masters of their own destiny, creating and sharing the material and spiritual wealth of Tibet, the paper said.
