Home > The Feudal Serf System in Tibet Before 1959

The Feudal Serf System in Tibet Before 1959

by Open-Publishing - Sunday 23 March 2008
5 comments

Democracy International

A Society Based on a Regime that Combined the Political and Religious Powers, and Divided People into Three Strata and Nine Grades Tibet before 1959 had a society of feudal serfdom. Along with the general characteristics of feudal serfdom, there were many remnants of slavery. This social system was more cruel and reactionary than serfdom in Europe in the Middle Ages. The serf-owners’ economic interests were protected by a political system that combined political and religious powers, ruling over the Tibetan people spiritually as well as politically. The local government of Tibet (in Tibetan, Kashag, and meaning "the institute that issues orders") was composed of powerful and influential monks and aristocrats. It upheld a series of social, political and legal institutions that rigidly stratified society. The Thirteen Laws and The Sixteen Laws divided the Tibetan people into three strata in nine grades according to their family background and social status.

The Feudal Lords’ Ownership of Means of Production

The monasteries, officialdom and the aristocrats owned all the arable land and pastures as well as overwhelming majority of livestock. These means of production were granted to them by the Dalai Lama. They had the right to govern and inherit the land.

The Feudal Lords’ Ownership of Their Serfs

Serfs and slaves accounted for 95 percent of the Tibetan population (peasants 60%, herdsmen 20%, and lower-class monks 15%). They were owned by serf-owners, just like the means of production. They had no political rights or personal freedom. They and their children were freely given away as gifts of donations, sold or exchanged for goods. Their marriages had to be approved in advance by their manorial lords. Serfs who married out of the manorial estate had to pay ransom money to their lords. Those who could not perform corvee or went out to seek a livelihood elsewhere should pay “corvee taxes” to show their dependence on the lords. If a serf lost his ability to work, his thralkang field, livestock and farm tools would be those who died without issue was confiscated.

The Serfs’ Economic Burden

Taxes and levies in Tibetan areas included land rent, stock rent, corvee and taxes.

The main form of land rent was forced labor. In addition, there was a mixed form of land rent, which was paid in kind, forced labor and cash.

The manorial lords generally kept 70 percent of their land under their own management and rented out the rest to their serfs as thralkang land. The serf tenants of the thralkang land also had to till the land managed by the manorial lord, using their own farm animals and tools. The entire harvest on land managed by the manorial lords belonged to them alone.

The serfs had to do corvee for manorial lords and local government and pay taxes in kind and cash. Corvee duties were allotted by the local government.

There were two kinds of stock rent: paid in animal products to the manorial lords according to the original number of livestock rented from them, or in products according to the actual number of livestock.

Other taxes included land tax, corvee tax, and countless others.

The Oppression of the Serfs by Manorial Lords

In Tibet under the serfdom, not only did the local regime at various levels, set up judicial institutions, but the big monasteries, manorial lords and tribal chieftains could also judge cases and had their own private prisons.

If the serfs stood up against the manorial lords, violated the law or could not pay rent or taxes in time, the lords would punish them according to the Thirteen Laws or other laws. They used such inhuman tortures as gouging out the eyes, cutting off the feet or hands, pushing the condemned person down from cliff, drowning, beheading, etc

The Serfs’ Miserable life

The wealth of the society was highly concentrated in Tibet before 1959. More than 80 percent was possessed by the manorial lords and less than 20 percent belonged to the serfs, who accounted for 95 percent of the population. The masses of serfs lived in extreme poverty.

Some statistics about serfdom in Tibet

Many statistics and data show that in Tibet before 1959, production stagnated, the population of the Tibetan nationality diminished, epidemic diseases prevailed, the people lived in misery and society as a whole developed very slowly. The facts cited above give a broad outlines.

Forum posts

  • "If a serf lost his ability to work, his thralkang field, livestock and farm tools would be those who died without issue was confiscated."

    Pls explain thks

  • The author, who calls him or herself ’Tibet’, leaves us with no sources to support his arguments. One wonders if any of what this author presents as history is correct. I have yet to find any encyclopedia, Brittanica included, that even mentions the Three Strata and Nine grades of feudal Tibet.

    This tract was obviously written by a supporter or a paid sycophant of the Chinese Communist Party, who like the US State Department’s excuses for the occupation of Iraq, use their own heavily politicized version of ’history’ (propaganda) to confuse Westerners whose knowledge of Tibet is practically non-existent and have no idea how many Tibetans have been killed by Chinese Communist forces since 1959.

    Any tract on the recent history of Tibet that does not even recognize the brutal invasion and occupation of this beautiful country by the Chinese Communists should be regarded with great suspicion.

    • it sounds to me that chinese killed millions of tibets don’t have any proof too. where are the pictures, videos? We see a lot of WWII pictures, how germans are killing Jews. How Japanese kill Chinese. As long as there is no proof. I don’t believe either sides. If you pro- those free-Tibet group, that is your business. I don’t pro China or Tibet, I am looking for the proof.

    • If you really need proof, go to following link: and please read the history related documents by even western Tibetologists. Please, and as a rational human being, you will know what was actually going on in Tibet before 1950s. Thanks.
      http://www.michaelparenti.org/Tibet.html

    • How can you tell this is not funded by CIA? Just like what they had done to Iraq before!!!