Chinese Mandarin -

V. The People Gain Personal
Freedom

The central people's government and the local government of Tibet signed
in 1951 the 17-Article Agreement on measures for the peaceful liberation
of Tibet, and Tibet was peacefully liberated. This brought hope to the
Tibetan people in their struggle for equal personal rights. After the
quelling of the armed rebellion in 1959, the central people's government,
in compliance with the wishes of the Tibetan people, conducted the
Democratic Reform in Tibet and abolished the extremely decadent and dark
feudal serfdom. The million serfs and slaves were emancipated. They were
no longer regarded as the personal property of serf-owners who could use
them for transactions, transfer, mortgage for a debt or exchange or exact
their toil. From that time on they gained the right to personal freedom.
This was a great, epoch-making change in Tibetan history.

Now old Tibet's codes have been abrogated. Citizens are no longer divided
into three classes and nine ranks. All sorts of barbarous punishments are
prohibited and privately established prisons have all been dismantled.
New China's Constitution and laws guarantee that every Tibetan enjoys the
right to subsistence and personal safety.

The Democratic Reform abolished the ownership of the means of production
by serf-owners. The farmland originally occupied by those serf-owners
involved in the armed rebellion was distributed free to landless serfs
and slaves. In Kesong Manor, Nedong County in Shannan Prefecture, 443
peasants were given 1,696 ke of land. When the title deeds for land and
debt contracts were thrown into the fire, the former serfs danced around
the blaze. The 75-year-old Soinam said, "I used to till the land of my
master, and I belonged to him day and night. When asked to do corvee at
midnight, I dared not wait till dawn the next day. Now I have received
land. I feel I can sleep well and have a good appetite. I really want to
live several years longer so that I can see the happy future." A policy
of redemption was introduced with regard to the land and other means of
production of serf-owners who did not participate in the rebellion. The
900,000 ke of land and over 820,000 head of livestock of the 1,300
serf-owners and their agents, who did not participate in the rebellion,
were redeemed by the state at a cost topping 45 million yuan.

The Tibetan laboring people no longer suffer from the heavy corvee taxes
and usurious exploitation by the serf-owners. The fruits of their labor
all belong to themselves, and the enthusiasm of the Tibetan people for
production became unprecedentedly high. The region's grain output in 1960
increased by 12.6 percent over 1959 and the number of livestock by 10
percent. The Tibetan people began to enjoy the right to subsistence,
along with adequate food and clothing.

Extracted http://www.hellomandarin.net