Scholar: Serfs´ emancipation topples dark rule in Tibet

The owners could sell and transfer their serfs, while serfs had to work for the owners generation by generation. Serfs had to seek their owners' consent before they got married, while their kids were also owned by their owners, according to the Tibetologist.

Photo taken on Jan. 21, 2009 shows the Potala  Palace with Chinese knots in foreground in  Lhasa, capital of southwest China's Tibet  Autonomous Region. New Year's decorations  become popular in Lhasa as the Chinese lunar  New Year is approaching. The Chinese Spring  Festival, or lunar New Year, falls on Jan.  26 this year. (Xinhua/Gaesang Dawa)

After the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet in 1951, Tibetans, including some from the upper class, became increasingly eager to reform the feudal serfdom. But in a hope to maintain their paradise, the reactionary part of the upper class on March 10, 1959 launched an armed rebellion, backed by international anti-China and anti-communism forces, the scholar said.

The rebellion was foiled by the People's Liberation Army and on March 17, the Dalai Lama, his family and his supporters ran away.

Between 1959 and 1961, a democratic reform was carried out in Tibet to destroy the feudalist serfdom completely.