Tibetan legislators proposed Friday to set up a Serfs Emancipation Day that will be remembered on March 28 every year to commemorate the emancipation of millions of serfs in the region 50 years ago.
The motion for this submitted to the second annual session of the ninth regional People's Congress, the regional legislature, will be reviewed by 387 lawmakers.
Tubdain Cewang, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the Tibet Autonomous Regional People's Congress, explained the bill to the session on Friday morning.
The bill, which will be reviewed on Saturday, is expected to be endorsed at the end of the session, which runs from Jan. 14 to 19.
The serfs and slaves were freed 50 years ago after the central government foiled an armed rebellion staged by the Dalai Lama and his supporters with assistance from some Western powers.
Tibet became part of China in the 13th century under the governance of Yuan Dynasty. In 1951, after the founding of the People's Republic of China, Mao Zedong's troops went into Tibet after the signing of a peaceful liberation agreement between the central government and Tibetan local government.
In 1956, China set up a preparatory committee for the establishment of Tibet Autonomous Region, while many local people were proposing the reform of the thousand-year-old serfs system in Tibet. However, On August 18, 1956, Mao Zedong wrote a letter to the14th Dalai Lama, saying that it was not the right time for Tibet to undertake a reform program.
In another message to the religious leader, Mao said it was left to the Dalai Lama to decide whether or not to start the reform process after the six years had elapsed.
However, the Dalai Lama and some serf owners still launched the armed rebellion, widely believed by Chinese historians was not to postpone the reform, but to continue forever the feudal serf system.
The People's Liberation Army quelled the rebellion and the Dalai Lama fled to India where he established a "government in exile". Later the democratic reform was introduced to end the feudal serfdom and abolish the hierarchic social system characterized by theocracy, with the Dalai Lama as the core of the leadership.
On March 28, 1959, the central government announced it would dissolve the aristocratic local government of Tibet and replace it with a preparatory committee for establishing the Tibet Autonomous Region.
Gama Dainba, a lawmaker from the region's Shannan area, setting a special commemorative day was like a gift to his parents who were once serfs. It also serves to remind youths today not to forget history.
"I think we should set a commemorative day for our parents and their ancestors, who had endured too much misery," said Gama. "Many youths today do not know the miseries, but they should not forget them."
Documents from the Tibetan Autonomous Region Archives Bureau showed serf owners -- mostly officials, nobles and lamas -- who accounted for 5 percent of the total population of the old Tibet occupied all the farming land and pastures and most of the livestock.
Serfs, who accounted for more than 90 percent of the population in old Tibet, were treated as private properties by their owners. They had no personal freedom. Their owners could wantonly insult,punish, buy and sell,give away as gifts, whip and even brutally kill them.
In 1733, the 7th Dalai Lama controlled 3,150 monasteries and 121,440 households. The serfs had to work in a painstaking way for the monasteries despite lack of food and clothing.
Saixim Village, Doilungdeqen County, 50 km northwest of Lhasa, was a manor of the 14th Dalai Lama's family before 1959. Till now, old folks in the village can still recall that five people were beaten to death and 11 wounded in the service of the Dalai Lama's family during a 10-year period.
Migmar Dondrup, a 74-year-old Tibetan farmer from Xigaze county, told Xinhua that he had been a serf for 11 years before the serfdom was abolished in 1959. "I'd be very glad if a date were set to mark the emancipation of Tibetan serfs," he said.
Before 1959, Dondrup and his wife were slaves of the Parlha Manor. Dondrup was a servant of the manor's owner, and his wife was a maid of the owner's mistress. The couple said they led a hungry and miserable life at the manor.
Dondrup called the date of their liberation 50 years ago "the most important day of my life. I was reborn," he claimed.
Dondrup's family of four generations now lives in a two-story house, with a floor space of 400 square meters.
Pang Boyong, deputy secretary-general of the regional people's congress standing committee, said the bill proposing to set the date by the local legislature was aimed at "reminding all the Chinese people, including Tibetans, of the landmark democratic reform initiated 50 years ago."
If approved, it would help the whole Chinese nation, including Tibetans, remember history, according to Legqog, director of the Standing Committee of the Tibet Autonomous Regional People's Congress.
Legqog said "Serfs Emancipation Day" would strengthen Tibetans' patriotism.
"Over the past five decades, Tibet's political, economic and cultural sectors have witnessed great changes ... former serfs have become masters of the new socialist Tibet," Legqog said. The 65-year old Tibetan leader himself grew up in a serf family in Tibet.
He said the Dalai Lama and his followers had constantly organized seditious activities and had tried "by all means to prevent Tibet's development," aiming to resume feudal serfdom.
(Xinhua News Agency January 16, 2009)