In order to make the 14th Dalai Lama look good, the Dalai Clique
extol him, the former chief representative of the feudal serfdom
under the theocratic socio-political structure, as the
"representative of democracy", and claim that "democracy has always
been the Dalai Lama's ideal" and he is "promoting democracy among
Tibetans in exile".
It is common knowledge that human society evolves through three
stages - theocracy, monarchy and civil rights. It is simply
ridiculous and strange that the Dalai Lama, a theocratic symbol, is
described as a "democracy fighter".
What truly happened in Tibet before 1959 when it was ruled by
the Dalai Lama who claimed democracy was his ideal? Before 1959,
lands and people in Tibet were fiefdoms of institutions of Tibetan
local governments, monasteries and nobles, who sustained the
Tibetan feudal serfdom as the three major estate-holders. With less
than 5 percent of Tibet's total population, the three major
estate-holders owned almost all the arable lands, pastures,
forestry, mountains, rivers and most livestock. They not only were
entitled to the blood-sucking exploitation of the serfs but also
held a dominating power over them. Serfs and slaves, who accounted
for 95 percent of the population of Tibet, had no basic human
rights or freedom. From birth, serfs belonged to an estate-holder.
Their life, death and marriage were at the disposal of serf-owners.
Being treated like livestock, serfs could be sold, bought,
transferred, offered as dowry, given to other serf-owners as gifts,
used to pay off debts or exchanged for other serfs.
To protect their interests, feudal serf-owners maintained a
strict social hierarchical system and cruel rule. The Thirteenth
Code and the Sixteenth Code, which had been used till the end of
the 1950s, clearly stipulated the life price of different social
ranks, ranging from those as cheap as a straw rope to those more
expensive than gold. The local Tibetan governments had courts and
prisons, and big monasteries and nobles also had their own prisons.
Serfs, who dared to rebel, were persecuted at the Seigniors'
pleasure under the cruel dictatorship.
They were frequently insulted or beaten up, or even faced brutal
punishment, such as having their eyes gouged out, ears or tongues
sliced off, hands or feet chopped off, tendons pulled out or being
thrown off cliffs or drowned.
The three main estate-holders forced serfs to do corvee, pay
rent, and exploited them with usury. Serfs had not only to do
corvee for various institutions of the local governments, officials
and army, but also work as unpaid labor to grow crops and herd
livestock for Seigniors, and pay miscellaneous taxes. Some of them
also needed to pay taxes and do corvee for monasteries.
Statistics showed that taxes collected by the Tibetan local
governments exceeded 200 categories and corvee served by serfs to
the three main estate-holders accounted for more than 50 percent of
the amount of their labor, or even 70 to 80 percent in some places.
Before democratic reform, the total amount of usury in Tibet was
twice as much as the output of the serfs.
The three main estate-holders, as rulers of the old Tibet, lived
mostly in cities and towns like Lhasa. They were bound together by
common interests. Their members - officials, nobles and
upper-ranking monks in monasteries - sometimes changed roles to
form strong ruling cliques or arrange intermarriages between clans
of the same social ranking to consolidate their alliance.
They also strictly followed the rule that people of high and low
social ranks should be treated differently, which both ethically
and in reality reinforced the privilege and interests of the
serf-owners. The offspring of nobles remained nobles forever, but
the serfs, who constituted most of Tibet's population, could never
extricate themselves from the miserable political, economic and
social circumstances.
The high degree of concentration of power and the freeze in
changes from one social class to another led to corruption and
degeneration of the ruling class and stagnancy and decadence of the
whole social system.
"The integration of politics and religion" was the core of
feudal serfdom in Tibet. Under such a system, religion was not only
a spiritual belief, but also a political and economic entity.
Oppression and exploitation existed in monasteries, which also
enjoyed feudal privilege. The cultural despotism under the
theocratic socio-political structure could not provide people with
opportunities to choose their own religious belief, neither could
it let people enjoy true religious freedom.
The serfs had no basic human rights and were in utter
destitution. One-tenth of young men in Tibet entered monasteries
and became monks. They were not engaged in material production or
human reproduction, which led to economic depression and population
decline in Tibet. With spiritual enslavement and promise of
happiness in the next life, the privileged group of monks and
nobles deprived serfs of not only their personal freedom and
property, but also their spiritual freedom.
The Dalai Lama, then chief representative of the Tibetan feudal
serfdom and leader of the Tibetan local government, never cared
about "democracy" or "human rights". As a matter of fact, it was
due to the fear of democratic reform, that the 14th Dalai Lama and
the ruling clique launched an armed rebellion in 1959 and went into
exile abroad after its failure.
After fleeing abroad, the Dalai Clique still maintained the
basic political framework of the integration of politics and
religion. According to their so-called "constitution", the Dalai
Lama, as a religious figure, not only serves as "head of state",
but also has final say on all key issues of the "government in
exile".
One phenomenon is that the 14th Dalai Lama's brothers and
sisters have successively served key posts in the "government in
exile" led by the Dalai Lama, taking charge of important
departments. Five people from the Dalai Lama's family have served
as chief bkha' blon (high ranking official in the Tibetan local
government in the old days) or bkha' blon. The Dalai Lama's family
and several other families control the political, economic,
educational and military power of the "government in exile" and its
key finance channels. It seems that they began to follow the
examples of the West and hold "democratic elections" and adopt
"separation of powers" in recent years, but in fact, the Dalai Lama
is still the ultimate decision maker, the "government in exile" is
still deeply connected with religion and its chief bkha' blon still
can only be served by monks. No matter how the Dalai Clique colors
itself with democratic decorations, it is, in fact, still the
theocratic political structure and a coalition of upper ranking
monks and nobles. Does "democracy" really exist under the rule of
the theocratic political structure and an alliance of monks and
nobles? Tibet and other parts of the Tibetan community in China
have long ago realized the separation of politics and religion,
completed democratic reforms and set up autonomous regional
governments and are now engaged in socialist democratic political
construction.
In contrast with such a reality, the empty talk of democracy by
the Dalai Lama and his international supporters is merely a cheap
garment, which they use to fool the public.
(Xinhua News Agency November 14, 2007)