BEIJING, Feb. 13, 2009 -- On hearing to designate March 28 as the Serfs Emancipation Day, Granny Puji, a former serf said: "the 1959 Democratic Reform was the preface to my new life, and the day the Reform started was the day of the beginning of my happiness."
Calling back to her mind the miserable days 50 years ago, Granny Puji's voice trembled.
File photo shows a half-naked serf forced to labor in shackles. (Xinhua Photo)
Born into a serf family, Puji lost her mother at the age of 11, after that she had no choice but to work as a servant for a local lord. "The daily food was a small bowl of tsampa, which I had to divide into several portions so that when I was extremly hungry I could manage a bite," Puji recalled.
Bare feet, patched clothes, empty stomach and endless dirty heavy toil constituted Puji's childhood. She had to get up and work when it was still dark, and only got to rest late at night. To her, rest meant lying on cold hard mud-ground with discarded shoes under her head and a shabby blanket serving as both mattress and quilt.
Granny Puji said to a serf an owner was the overlord who must be obeyed in everything. Whenever the lord was in the mood, he granted the serfs a storm of whips. No personal freedom and basic human right were heard of, and the thing serfs were entitled to was to toil.
"The only thing you can take away with is your shadow, and the only thing that you can leave behind is your footprints" is a sad depiction of the serfs in Old Tibet. Under the serf system, serfs accounted for 95 percent of the whole population, but owned none of the means of production and enjoyed no freedom. The serf owners were in a position to buy, sell, transfer, bestow, exchange or even kill the serfs.
Just as Puji was wondering when this kind of existence would end for her, in 1959 the Democratic Reform was launched and a million serfs like herself were emancipated.
"Everyone was in such ecstasy that we set the land deeds and contract on fire right away and began to celebrate. The government distributed land and property to us in equal shares, thus for the first time we had our own land." After so many years, Puji still rejoiced in the memory.
Soon afterwards, Puri went to Shanxi to attend school, during which time she became a CPC member, and after graduation she stayed to teach. Since her transference to Chamdo Education Committee, she stayed in Chamdo all along. "My education helped me to realize a dream that is beyond my ancestors' wildest imagination -- to be a government cadre."
From a serf under ruthless oppression to a respectable teacher, Puji made her way to happiness. "It is heaven and hell between the past and present. Nowadays everybody is well fed, well dressed and well dwelled, meanwhile benefiting from the government's cares. We are truly the nation's owners now."
In Granny Puji's memory, her hometown Xigaze was no more than a destitute tiny village. Naturally to her surprise, the once small village has turned into a bustling modern town. "Each family owns a new house that is way better than the lords'," commented Puji. "Those having a miserable past tend to appreciate today's happiness more early."
It is impossible for one who had survived the old Tibet to forget about that history. "I often told stories from the past to my children. While moving on with the new life, we should never leave the past behind as well."
Puji said that the Serfs Emancipation Day is the anniversary of happiness for million serfs, and the day should be engraved on everyone's mind.
At present, Puji is enjoying her twilight years in comfort, with all of her children successful in their careers. She expressed her belief that every Tibetan will enjoy a better life as she does.
