March 30,2017
March 30,2017--A flag-raising ceremony is held at Potala Palace Square, Lhasa, capital city of China's Tibet autonomous region, to celebrate the 58th Serfs Emancipation Day on March 28, 2017. The annual Serfs Emancipation Day is held to commemorate the 1959 democratic reform in Tibet, which ended feudal serfdom and freed about one million Tibetan serfs. [Photo /China Daily]
March 30,2017--March 28 is the 58th anniversary of millions of serfs' emancipation in Tibet.
On March 28, 1959, Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai signed an order of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, announcing the dissolution of the former local Tibetan government. Since then, Tibet ended its theocratic feudal system similar to that of medieval Europe, allowing the serfs to share the land, livestock and other means of production.
On January 19, 2009, the People's Congress of Tibet Autonomous Region made March 28 a commemoration day for Tibetan serfs' liberation.
Although it has been nearly 60 years since their liberation, former slave Phurbu still remembers clearly that his slave parents used to carry wood from Lhoka to Lhasa. "My parents put a thick piece of Tibetan wool on their shoulders and backs as the rope used to carry wood might cut into their shoulders. They worked so hard, but we even could not fill ourselves up with highland barley."
