One sentence in Article Three of the Thirteen Laws, a copy of which is filed under the No MB101 in the Archives of the Nationalities Cultural Palace, reads: "Persons of low social stratus who quarrel with those of high status shall be arrested".
The eighth article of the Thirteen Laws says: "A drop of blood of the people of high status is worth one qian (0.16 oz) of silver, while a drop of blood of the people of low status is worth one li (one 10th of a qian) of silver".
Figures from the old Tibetan local government from June 1959, which are kept at the Tibet autonomous region's archives, show that of the 3.3 million khals (in Tibetan measurements, about 541,200 acres) of land under cultivation in old Tibet, local government officials owned 1.2 million, or about 39 percent; aristocrats owned 790,000, or 24 percent; and the high clergy owned 1.2 million, or 37 percent. These "manorial lords", accounted for just 5 percent of the population.
The serfs and house-slaves who accounted for 95 percent of the population were the property of serf owners.
Even their offspring became the property of the serf owners from birth.
According to many original contracts preserved in the Archives of the Nationalities Cultural Palace and the Archive of the Tibet Autonomous Region, the manorial lords had the freedom to exchange serfs or present serfs to each other as gifts.
Serfs had to pay high interest on their debts by doing corvee (unpaid labor) or by selling their own children.
A certificate, written in the old form of the Tibetan language, used before 1959 and kept as No MC 1015 File at the Archives of the Nationalities Cultural Palace, reads: "Being unable to pay back the money and grain we owe Nedong Dekhang, we, Tsewang Rabten and my wife, serfs of the Dusong Manor, must give up our daughter Gensong Tonten and younger son Padma Tenzin to Dekhang to repay the debts. The descendents of their son and daughter will be Dekhang's serfs."
Part of another contract, also kept at the Archives of the Nationalities Cultural Palace, as No MC 10144 File, was signed in 1947 by Drashi Choda to pay off his debt by letting his sister Tsering Lhamo work for Lharang without pay for 10 years.