Liberation of Tibet

The differences between life today and life before the Liberation of China were described by a Tibetan student. She said "Before Liberation (Tibet was liberated in 1959), there were seven members of my family. My mother died a year after I was born. We lived a miserable life under oppression, growing vegetables for the market. Although we worked day and night, we could not support ourselves. We had to pay rent and taxes. There were 100 types of tax, including a tax on every child born. Sometimes I begged in the street.

"There was no freedom to move about. None of us went to school, none of us could read and we did not have enough to eat. It was worse than a dog's or a horse's life.

"In 1961, after the suppression of the slaveowners' rebellion, the People s Liberation Army came to my village and three of my sisters were sent to university. I went to school and in 1969, became a radio announcer in Lhasa. In 1971, I came to study here in Peking. Now my family is living a happy life in Tibet and my father is enjoying his old age."

I saw photographs and exhibits that showed the various barbaric torture methods used by the slaveowners of Tibet. They included the gouging out of eyes after placing a heavy stone skullcap on the slave's head, cutting off of hands, and chaining slaves in holes filled with scorpions.

It was easy to understand the Tibetan student's reaction to her present living conditions, compared with those of her childhood.