Like many children of former serfs, Zhoigar eventually entered a college and had a decent job upon graduation.

"A serf became a government official, and even a leader of modern university. It's like a dream. But it;s a real story of me.I often said to myself: how great is my country, and how great is the new Tibet," said Zhoigar.

Yangzom, a former serf of a Shannan District manor, has enjoyed life after his retirement from the regional transport bureau.

"I had thought being a serf was my destiny," said Yangzom, "Shannan was the base of armed rebellion in 1959, I saw armies of the Dalai Lama looting and setting fires everywhere. They were so cruel with people who supported the Communist Party. They gouged their eyes and cut off their noses."

"The Dalai Lama group are talking about human rights. No people knows better than us, who experienced both old and new Tibet. We will never allow them to reverse of the wheels of history."

Yanglag, who and her husband helped Han nationality people to hide from the mobs attack during the March 14 riot, said the dearest wish of her childhood was to have enough to eat.

"I herded for my owner at the age of eight, and never imaged that I would go to school. I was liberated from the serfdom in 1959 and was provided free education, and became a civil servant."

Now Yanglag, the former director of the Jiangda county women's association in Changdu prefecture, bought a house in Lhasa after her retirement. She enjoys her retired life and would go out for walks in the neighborhood every day as an exercise.

"I feel so happy with my life now. We can not allow those to sabotage the ethnic unity and ruin our happy life. They will lift stones only to hit their own feet," said Yanglag.

Gaisang Doje, a retired official with the legislature of the Shannan prefecture said: "I never had a piece of new clothes before I was 15. In old Tibet, we worked like a dog and still got whipped by the owners.'

"The Dalai group wants to restore the old system, (because) that is the paradise for them. But for us it is the hell on earth."

Cangmolag, a former cadre of the Tibet University, said he and his sister both worked as servants in the house of a noble.

"My greatest wish then is to have a pair of shoes. That is the best life I can image," he said.

Cangmolag was sent to a school after the democratic reform and became a government official upon graduation from university.

"Without the democratic reform, I would have remained a servant of the lowest kind in the house of the noble," he said.

"The new Tibet forms a sharp contrast to the old one. No one can deny the facts in history," said Cangmolag, "we former serfs will never allow them to shade the sun from the sky of Tibet."

(Xinhua News Agency April 12, 2008)