A recent visit to the Archives of the Tibet Autonomous Region uncovered a letter written in the early 1950s by a relevant department of the old Tibetan local government to Rabdian official. The letter in the Tibetan language says: When celebrating the birthday of the Dalai Lama, all members of the Lower Tantra School must chant Krodha sutras. "The ceremony must include food, as well as a complete set of wet intestines, two human heads and skin, the blood of both humans and animals. The items must be delivered immediately."

After reading the inhumane order on file in the archives, it is very difficult to even imagine that the Dalai Lama often said that Tibetan people enjoyed full freedom and happiness during his reign.

Expert archivists pointed out that, prior to the peaceful liberation of Tibet, human organs were often presented to the Dalai Lama for conducting religious activities. Voluminous files of modem history stored in the archives demonstrate that the buying and selling of slaves was common until 1959.

The Archives of the Tibet Autonomous Region was founded in the early 1960s on the western outskirts of Lhasa. The complex covers two hectares, with floor space of 9,000 square meters. The facility stores more than 90 general archives contained in over 3 million volumes which span 700 years from the Yuan Dynasty (12711368) to the 1950s. It represents one of the most informative local archives in China.

Two other files in the archives record the suffering of serfs, who were suppressed and exploited under the rule of the Dalai Lama. Prior to the peaceful liberation of Tibet, serfs filed a lawsuit with the Dalai government against a noble by the name of Gardewa from Rinbung County in Xigaze. They accused him of arbitrarily raising taxes and forcefully occupying land. The government simply ignored the accusations. Numerous tralpas (serfs) were rendered insolvent due to heavy taxation, and nobles paying off debts with slaves was far from unusual. In 1944,every family in Chigu was required to hand over the wool of 20 sheep to prepare a Buddhist robe as tribute to the Dalai Lama. In addition, each family was forced to provide the wool of 12 sheep to make a hat for the Dalai Lama.

Yet another file listed Tibet's 1950 population at 1 million, of whom 900,000 who had no homes of their own. The population of the Lhasa area was listed at only 20,000, with the number of beggars reaching 1,000.

Zhoigar, 60, recalled that the peaceful liberation of Tibet enabled homeless people in Rubu District of Lhasa to have houses roofed with iron plating. The materials were provided by the central government, despite the fact that raw materials were in short supply at the time.

According to data released by the Tibetan government, the per-capita living space for Tibetan farmers has jumped to 20.36 square meters, with the figure for an urban residents standing at 12.59 square meters. Some 85 percent of farmers and herdsmen have new houses. A number of residential quarters have been constructed, including the New Unity Village, Rubu Residential Committee, and Garma Guisan Residential Area. The residential areas are well designed and equipped, providing conformable living conditions for urban residents.

The elderly man went on to say that the Dalai Lama has attempted to befuddle international opinion by spreading rumors that "the Tibetan people of today live in a hell on earth." However, his lies collapse in face of the truth.

During a meeting with the US Economic and Cultural Inspection Delegation, Toinzhub, vice-chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Region Government, said the central government has always regarded solving food and clothing problems for the Tibetan people as. a matter of primary importance. The government has distributed cultivated land, pastureland, forests, mountains and rivers, as well as the livestock previously owned by only 5 percent of high-level monks and priests, government officials and nobles. Such items have been allotted to former serfs who accounted for 95 percent of the total population. Over the past 10-odd years of reform and opening, the central government has introduced tax-free policies for Tibet's farming and animal husbandry sectors through the year 2000.

Toinzhub said that as part of an attempt to comprehensively carry out the national policy on religion, the central government allocated special funds of 216 million yuan for renovating the Potala Palace, Jokhang and other monasteries. The Dalai Lama's former bedroom and sutra hall in the Potala Palace have also been renovated, and a pagoda was built to house the remains of the 10th Bainqen Lama. Since 1952,the central government has not taken any money from the local Tibetan government, but has in instead allocated an accumulated funding of over 35 billion yuan, while at the same time introducing a series of preferential policies to support economic development in Tibet.

(This article appears on page 20, No. 19, 1996)