28 March has been declared as the Tibetan Serfs Emancipation Day. The Day was designated to mark the historic date in 1959 on which one million serfs in Tibet were freed. The decision was made through a bill endorsed by the regional legislature of Tibet, in accordance with the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the Law of the PRC on Regional Ethnic Autonomy and the Organic Law of PRC on the Local People’s Congresses and Local People’s Governments.

　　Old Tibet before 1959 was ruled under a theocratic system of feudal serfdom where 90% of the population being serfs and slaves who had absolutely no basic human rights at all. They owned no land, no property, and had no personal freedom. Many of them were private “properties” of their masters-- serf owners.

　　In 1959, the Central Government of China and the regional government of Tibet signed an agreement (i.e. The 17 articles Agreement) on the peaceful liberation of Tibet. The Central government, however, in consideration of the reality of Tibet at the time, did not take immediate actions to reform Tibet’s social and political system. It was expected that the reform be carried out with the initiative and cooperation of the upper ruling class of Tibet. While the reform was pending, the call of millions of serfs and slaves for democratic reform and equal rights was growing louder than ever.

　　On 10 March, 1959, the 14th Dalai Lama, in his desperate efforts to preserve the theocratic serf system in Tibet, staged a full scale armed insurgency in the region in an attempt to separate Tibet from its motherland. It was against this background that the Central Government took decisive actions to quell the insurgency.

　　On 28 March, 1959, Zhou Enlai, the then Premier of China, issued the Order of PRC State Council to dissolve the former local government of Tibet and replace it with a preparatory committee of the Tibet Autonomous Region, which temporarily exercised authority as the new Tibetan local government. The democratic reform began in Tibet. The feudal serfdom under theocracy in Tibet was abolished. Under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, the people’s democratic power was established in Tibet. With a million serfs and slaves freed, Tibet achieved a historical leap forward in the changing of its social system. The abolition of serfdom in Tibet is no less significant than the abolition of the salve system in America and Europe. It is another historic milestone in the cause of the world’s human rights development.

　　In the past 50 years since the democratic reform, earth-shaking changes have taken place in Tibet. Rapid developments in political, economic, cultural, and all other fields have been witnessed by all the people living in Tibet and by people who visited the place. The vast masses in Tibet have fully enjoyed and performed the various rights conferred by the Constitution and the Law on Regional Autonomy of Minority Nationalities. Past serfs now have their destiny in their own hands and are working in one heart to build their own new Tibet.

　　The designation of 28 March as the Tibetan Serfs Emancipation Day” is to remind people of all ethnic groups in China never to forget the past. It is to urge them to unite and work hard for an even better and prosperous Tibet.