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Exibition on 50 anniversary of Democratic reform in China..ONLINE
Tibetan legislators endorsed a bill Monday to designate March 28 as an
annual Serfs Emancipation Day, to mark the date on which about 1
million serfs in the region were freed 50 years ago.
The bill
was submitted last week to the second annual session of the ninth
regional People's Congress (legislature) for review.
"The 382
legislators attending the session unanimously voted for the proposal,"
said Legqog, director of the Standing Committee of the Tibetan
Autonomous Regional People's Congress.
"Serfs Emancipation Day" will take place every year on March 28.
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.
The move came after the central government foiled an armed rebellion
staged by the Dalai Lama and his supporters, most of whom were slave
owners attempting to maintain serfdom.
That meant the end
of serfdom and the abolition of the hierarchic social system
characterized by theocracy, with the Dalai Lama as the core of the
leadership. About 1 million serfs and slaves, accounting for 90 percent
of Tibetan population in the1950s, were thus freed.
Among
the lawmakers who reviewed the bill was Gaisang, 62, chief executive
officer of the Yamei Ethnic Handicraft Ltd. Corp.
"The day
should have been established earlier," he said, beaming. "It is
necessary to have the day remembered to comfort the old, who were once
serfs, and teach the young who have little idea of that part of
history."
"My parents, who were both serfs, didn't live to see the day. They died several years ago." he said.
The entrepreneur was born to the family of Tralpa (a kind of Tibetan
serf) in Bailang County, Xigaze. His childhood memories were bare feet,
patched clothes and a leather whip as thick as a finger.
"If you dared to offend the lord, what was in store for you was at least 50 lashes," he said.
The low point for him came in 1954, when the nearby Nianchu River flooded, inundating crops.
"Thousands of kilograms of grain rotted in the warehouses of the
aristocrats, while serfs died from starvation," he recalled.
According to Gaisang, serfs then were bought and sold like animals.
His aunt, Canggyoi, was sold from Xigaze to Lhasa in her teens, and his parents didn't even know.
Gaisang's parents found his aunt, whose name had been changed by her
new owner, after a week-long search in Lhasa and they cried for joy.
Now Canggyoi has a daughter and two grandchildren. Like other people
above 80, she gets a pension of 300 yuan (about 44 U.S. dollars) a
year. Her family's annual net income is about 5,000 yuan.
More info
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-02/27/content_10907924.htm
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