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Dalai Lama whitewashes serfdom
By Chen Yong, Fei Liena and Li Rong |
March 28, 2009, Saturday
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TODAY is a memorable date in the history of world human rights.
Fifty years ago today, China's Tibet Autonomous Region started democratic reform in its territory of more than 1.2 million square kilometers.
Reform put an end to centuries-old feudal serfdom under theocratic rule and gave freedom to some 1 million serfs.
Serfdom confined serfs to the land of their owners, and subjected them to cruel exploitation through human bondage.
The African slave trade by some European countries to the Americas lasted more than four centuries.
Plantations that used large number of slaves still existed in the southern United States until the 19th century.
In the eyes of some Western scholars, Tibet before March 28, 1959, presented a similar dark picture.
American Tibetologist Melvyn C. Goldstein noted that the old system of Tibet was to confine labor to the land so that land owners could benefit from it.
In his book "Old Tibet Faces New China," French traveler Alexander David-Neel wrote, "All the farmers in Tibet are serfs saddled with lifelong debts, and it is almost impossible to find any of them who have paid off their debts."
Charles Bell, who lived in Lhasa as a British trade representative in the 1920s, described theocracy and the serfs in his book "Portrait of A Dalai Lama: The Life and Times of the Great Thirteenth." He wrote that the theocratic position of the Dalai Lama enabled him to administer rewards and punishments as he wished, because he held absolute power over both this life and the next of the serfs, and coerced them with such power.
The "Universal Declaration of Human Rights" passed by the UN Assembly on December 10, 1948, states: "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights."
Feudal serfdom and slavery are doomed to extinction as they hindered productivity, violated human rights and distorted human nature.
The past centuries witnessed actions taken by various governments to abolish slavery and free slaves.
The British parliament banned British ships from the slave trade in 1807.
In 1862, US President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation that freed all slaves in Confederate States of America, following a rebellion by slave owners in some southern states.
The proclamation went down as a great landmark in the annals of worldwide movement against slavery.
The 1959 democratic reforms in Tibet likewise ushered in a brand new era for Tibet after a rebellion by a handful of serf owners was quelled.
People have every reason to commemorate the date when serfdom was abolished in Tibet.
In 2007, the United Nations and countries across Africa, America and Europe marked the 200th anniversary of the end of transatlantic slave trade.
In 2008, the US Congress offered apologies to African Americans and their descendants for the sufferings caused by slavery once practiced in the country.
Today, longing for their lost paradise, former serf owners headed by the Dalai Lama are still trying to whitewash serfdom of the old Tibet with all kinds of lies.
(The authors are Xinhua writers.)
Fifty years ago today, China's Tibet Autonomous Region started democratic reform in its territory of more than 1.2 million square kilometers.
Reform put an end to centuries-old feudal serfdom under theocratic rule and gave freedom to some 1 million serfs.
Serfdom confined serfs to the land of their owners, and subjected them to cruel exploitation through human bondage.
The African slave trade by some European countries to the Americas lasted more than four centuries.
Plantations that used large number of slaves still existed in the southern United States until the 19th century.
In the eyes of some Western scholars, Tibet before March 28, 1959, presented a similar dark picture.
American Tibetologist Melvyn C. Goldstein noted that the old system of Tibet was to confine labor to the land so that land owners could benefit from it.
In his book "Old Tibet Faces New China," French traveler Alexander David-Neel wrote, "All the farmers in Tibet are serfs saddled with lifelong debts, and it is almost impossible to find any of them who have paid off their debts."
Charles Bell, who lived in Lhasa as a British trade representative in the 1920s, described theocracy and the serfs in his book "Portrait of A Dalai Lama: The Life and Times of the Great Thirteenth." He wrote that the theocratic position of the Dalai Lama enabled him to administer rewards and punishments as he wished, because he held absolute power over both this life and the next of the serfs, and coerced them with such power.
The "Universal Declaration of Human Rights" passed by the UN Assembly on December 10, 1948, states: "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights."
Feudal serfdom and slavery are doomed to extinction as they hindered productivity, violated human rights and distorted human nature.
The past centuries witnessed actions taken by various governments to abolish slavery and free slaves.
The British parliament banned British ships from the slave trade in 1807.
In 1862, US President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation that freed all slaves in Confederate States of America, following a rebellion by slave owners in some southern states.
The proclamation went down as a great landmark in the annals of worldwide movement against slavery.
The 1959 democratic reforms in Tibet likewise ushered in a brand new era for Tibet after a rebellion by a handful of serf owners was quelled.
People have every reason to commemorate the date when serfdom was abolished in Tibet.
In 2007, the United Nations and countries across Africa, America and Europe marked the 200th anniversary of the end of transatlantic slave trade.
In 2008, the US Congress offered apologies to African Americans and their descendants for the sufferings caused by slavery once practiced in the country.
Today, longing for their lost paradise, former serf owners headed by the Dalai Lama are still trying to whitewash serfdom of the old Tibet with all kinds of lies.
(The authors are Xinhua writers.)
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