Chinese Tibet: From Serfdom to Democracy

Although universally presented as a paragon of human rights, tolerance, democratic values and peace, the true story of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan separatists is rarely discussed in the mainstream media.

Recent Hollywood films and popular culture in general tend to present Lamaist Tibet as an idyllic Shangri-la. However, the reality was rather different.

The Tibetan Lama theocracy was arguably one of the cruelest, most despotic kingdoms in the history of humanity. The monastic lama class ruled over a majority of serfs whose living conditions were often worse than those of animals. And the Tibetan monasteries were extremely hierarchical. The upper lamas lived in opulent palaces, took children as sex slaves and lived off the labour of the lower lamas who, in turn, lived off the labour of the starving serfs.

The punishment meted out to disobedient serfs included gouging out of eyes; evisceration; the severing of hands and legs and other more hideous forms of torture. Professor Micheal Parenti writes: In 1959, Anna Louise Strong, an American journalist visited an exhibition of torture equipment that had been used by the Tibetan overlords. There were handcuffs of all sizes, including small ones for children, and
instruments for cutting off noses and ears, gouging out eyes, breaking off hands, and hamstringing legs. There were hot brands, whips, and special implements for disemboweling. The exhibition presented photographs and testimonies of victims who had been blinded or crippled or suffered amputations for thievery.

There was the shepherd whose master owed him a reimbursement in yuan and wheat but refused to pay. So he took one of the master’s cows; for this he had his hands severed. Another herdsman, who opposed having his wife taken from him by his lord, had his hands broken off. There were pictures of Communist activists with noses and upper lips cut off, and a woman who was raped and then had her nose sliced away. This is not quite the idyllic paradise of Hollywood lore! Serfs often had to carry their owners on their backs. As a result, a large number of serfs were stooped and crippled.

It would not be incorrect to say that before the arrival of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in Tibet in 1951, the land of the Lamas was hell on earth. Over 70 percent of the population was comprised of poor illiterate serfs and nomads; they had absolutely no rights and no value.

Among the thousands of articles and news reports about the Dalai Lama, Tibetan independence, “democracy”, “human rights”, and “Chinese communist repression”, one will search in vain for the actual facts about the tyrannical dictatorship of the Lamas in Tibet.

 When the PLA (People's Liberation Army) arrived in Tibet, the upper lamas tried to portray them as cannibals and vandals who were intent on destroying Tibetan culture. But the lower level lamas soon realized that the PLA’s purpose was to implement democratic reform, and that this was also in their own interest as they had themselves suffered much from the upper Lamas and the cruel autocratic Dalai Lama. Education in the monasteries was reserved for the top lamas such as the gesi. Most of the lower-level lamas could neither read nor write and were the sons of serfs. Pedophilia and sexual abuse was also rampant throughout Tibet’s monasteries.

It was not until 1959 when a tiny minority of Tibetan lamas, backed by the CIA, rose up against the communist government that the Tibetan people finally freed themselves from the yoke of tyranny. The Lamas were forced by Tibet’s liberated serfs to go into exile in India. Once the Dalai Lama and his cohorts had been exiled, celebrations followed in Lhasa as the title deeds of the manorial lords were burned in bonfires. The freed Tibetan serfs received title deeds to land, cattle and tools for farming.

 The liberation of Tibet permitted other minority ethnic groups such as Loba, Monba and Deng to play an active role in society for the first time. Over half the secretaries in the Tibet Autonomous Region’s Party Committee were Tibetan. The people of Tibet had never known so much autonomy and freedom in their history. For the first time in the history of Tibet, the majority of the people were taught how to read their own language. Thousands of schools and hospitals were constructed in Tibet to provide free health and free education for the Tibetan people. Tibetan Women were given equal rights to men.

Quoting from his field research notebooks, historian Mobo Gao writes: A former serf declares that without the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) there would not have been a life for serfs like him. Another interviewee, the son of a well-known living Buddha and the most outstanding Tibetan photographer, states he really believed in Mao Ze Dong and thought everything said by Mao was the universal truth. In the 1980s when he was received by His Holiness the Dalai Lama (outside China) he told his Holiness that it was the truth that the majority of the Tibetans supported the CCP because the CCP really liberated the serfs. The first interviewee, an ordinary Tibetan woman in Lhasa, states that Mao helped a lot of people, that the world cannot do without people like Mao, that Tibet used to be unfair when some were rich while some did not have enough to eat and that Mao’s revolution changed everything. For a survey of Tibetans' opinions regarding China, see this.

Rapid industrialization followed the liberation of Tibet. Roads and infrastructure were built and local industries were developed. By 1974 Tibet had, for the first time in its history, grown enough grain to feed its people. Under the despotic feudalism of the Lamas where famine was common, Tibet’s population declined by over 1 million in the 200 years preceding the liberation. By the mid 70s, however, Tibet’s population had grown by 400,000 and minority ethnic groups of Loba, Deng and Monbas, who had been the most oppressed under the Lamas, were also growing in numbers. When the Chinese People’s Liberation Army arrived in Tibet in 1950, thousands of serfs rose up against the tyranny of the nobility and the lama monks. Many monasteries were attacked and vandalized. Exactions and retribution by liberated serfs against their former oppressors were common. However, the Chinese Communist Party discouraged such actions and concrete measures were implemented to protect temples and monasteries from vandalism.

Article 3 of “The Resolution on Carrying Out Democratic Reform in Tibet Adopted by the Second Plenary Session of the Preparatory Committee for the Autonomous Region of Tibet” on July 17, 1959, reads: The policy of protecting the freedom of religious belief, protecting the patriotic and law-abiding temples and monasteries and protecting the historical cultural relics must be strictly adhered to in the democratic reform as in the past. A campaign must be launched in the temples and monasteries against rebellion, feudal prerogatives and exploitation. The policy of “buying out” is to be followed in dealing with the land and other means of production of patriotic and law-abiding temples and monasteries. The livelihood of the lamas is to be arranged for by the government. Subsidies will be given where the income of the temples and monasteries is not sufficient to meet their proper spending. Not only did the CPC (Communist Party of China) outlaw vandalism against Tibetan monasteries and culture, they actually restored many monasteries that had been neglected during the reign of the Dalai Lama.

Although pro-Tibetan separatist propaganda in the West claims that it is a separate country, Tibet has been part of China for centuries. Since the publication of Halliday and Chang’s book, Mao, the Unknown Story, in 2005, a concerted attempt has been made to demonise the Chinese communists and Mao Tse Tung, in particular. However, in his book The Struggle For China’s Past, Chinese scholar, Mobo Gao, identifies hundreds of unsubstantiated claims, inconsistencies, lies and distortions in Chang’s book. According to Professor Gao, the book ignores the most basic procedures of academic writing. Needless to say, Chang’s Mao, the Unknown Story, has become a best seller in the West and has had a phalanx of reactionary historians praising its merits.

Referring to a detailed academic critique of Chang and Halliday’s book, Gao writes: "To demonise Mao is the right politics of course. When someone pasted some criticism of the Chang and Halliday book on the Amazon sales website, it was immediately attacked as ‘ugly Chinese propaganda’(Jin Xiaoding, 2005). On the other hand, Jin’s critique of the book was met with absolute silence by the Western media (no Western media outlet was ready to publish the 17 questions raised by Jin). When the Chinese version of Jin’s critique appeared on the Chinese language website duowei, there was a lively debate. Jung Chang had to admit, when asked, that Jin’s 17 questions are good questions but refused to provide convincing replies to them. For Western media it does not matter as long as the politics is right, and the right politics is that Mao must be discredited.  http://chinatibet.people.com.cn/7851358.html Source: Tibet.cn 

Editor's note: Gearóid ó Colmáin was once a columnist of Metro Eireann. An article of his, titled Dalai Lama Cult: Postmodern Neo-feudalism and the Decline of the West was posted on dissidentvoice.org on June 11th, 2012. It disclosed the 14th Dalai Lama's dark side which is rarely known to Westerners. This is an excerpt from the essay. 

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