A group of 41 military attaches and deputy military attaches to China and their wives Wednesday visited an exhibition marking the 50th Anniversary of Democratic Reforms in Tibet.

The officials from 22 countries included South African Defense Attache Ralph Ndabambi, who said the exhibition provided basic information about Tibet, which informed him about the Dalai Lama and Tibet Autonomous Region.

Ndabambi said that after seeing the pictures, he felt the need to sit down and read more about Tibet.

The exhibition, which opened Feb. 24, has five sections: the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet; Crackdown on the Armed Rebellion; Democratic Reform in Tibet; Half a Century of Conflict between Reunification and Separation, Progress and Regress; and Social and Economic Development and Achievements in Human Rights.

More than 500 photos, 180 objects and documents and many audio-visual materials depict the changes that have taken place in Tibet over the past 50 years.

A deputy military attache from Jordan, who declined to give his name, said the exhibition helped him see more about Tibet.

"I feel bad for the situation in Tibet before," he said after watching photos and objects showing tortuous lives of the Tibetan people before the Democratic Reforms in 1959.

The Chinese government dissolved the aristocratic local government of Tibet and freed more than 1 million serfs in 1959.

"The lives of Tibetan people have changed dramatically," the Jordanian deputy military attache said. "What the central government has done to the Tibetan people could not be done by themselves."

"I hope to visit Tibet myself," he added.

The exhibition in the Cultural Palace of Nationalities runs until April 10. It is co-sponsored by the Information Office of the State Council, the United Front Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, the State Ethnic Affairs Commission, the Tibet Autonomous Region, the Central Archives, and Xinhua News Agency.

(Xinhua News Agency April 1, 2009)