Tibetannet

"Each period has its own characteristics, and proverbs put in the appropriate light the characteristics of each period. Daqiong, a scholar from the Tibet Academy of Social Sciences says “Honey is fragrant and sweet, yet what is vivid are proverbs”.

Looking back over a half of century in Tibet, the 74 year-old Geliequta used the following proverb to describe the spirit of the old Tibet “Although all life originated from parents, our body is born unto the government; so even if you have life and a body you had no right to be their master.”

57 years ago, when Geliequta was less than 20 years old, he repetitively engaged in plaintive serf labor for his master. He said being a serf required legs made of iron, a stomach the size of a bird's, and the eyes of an owl”.

The old man explained that “Because there was always endless work, legs made of iron that did not know pain were required; during every meal you did not get to eat enough, and for this a stomach of a small bird was needed; in the evening it was also necessary to do work for the serf master and for this would be needed the eyes of an owl.”

Geliequta’s place of origin is located in the village of Namkar, in the Doilungdêqên District of Lhasa, about 1.5 hour by car from Lhasa.

When the journalist entered his two story house for the first time, there were two small girls playing in the 100 square meter yard. He was wearing a black Tibetan gown, and on the inside he was wearing a black down-filled garment. He was born in 1942, and today maintains thin cheeks, white hair, a white beard and a hale and hearty spirit.

“Labor is the left hand of blessings, while diligence is the right hand of happiness.” When speaking of the life during that period he used this proverb. However in the life that he remembers before the age of 17, he said that for the serf master households he and the other serfs were “humans by day, and dogs by night”, although they all worked very hard it was very difficult to live with dignity.

In the 1950s, the slave system, and the negro slave system had already been expelled by modern civilization, yet Tibetan society was still in the midst of being a under the rule of a theocratic feudal serf system. Official aristocrats and upper level monks within monasteries for all practical purposes occupied all the means of production throughout Tibet, it was just like the proverb says “poor man’s sweat, rich man’s meal”.

The elderly man said that the serf masters of that time “could drink all the waters in the sea and their thirst would still not be quenched, and could eat an entire mountain yet still not feel full”; and on the other hand the lives of the slaves could be described with the following proverb “look up hopefully to the sky, to find that the stars appear to be shivering with cold; looking over the land, and then hoar frost, just like that, will be trembling in the wind”.

"Little sparrows like daybreak, while owls anticipate dark nights”. On March 28th, 1959, the State Council issued an order that a democratic revolution would be carried out in Tibet that would totally rid of the theocratic feudal serf system. On January 19th, 2009, it was decided during the second session of the 9th National People’s Congress of the Tibetan Autonomous Region that March 28th would become a day of commemoration for the liberation of one million Tibetan serfs.

Realization of the democratic revolution changed Geliequta’s destiny. As this elderly man said, it meant saying farewell to the days in which “one could not have the freedom to say three sentences, or the right to walk three steps down the road”. After this, in succession he assumed responsibilities as director of the poor peasant association , director of the Gurum district rural area credit union , leader of the people’s militia platoon, and logistics facilitator for the township elementary school amongst other positions, furthermore, he joined the Chinese Communist Party in 1965.

“People that have been through dark nights, only know the wonder of days; those that have endured persecution only know what is true happiness.” The elderly man said “all what is a blessing today are all things provided by the party and state.” His inner heart was brimming with incomparable joy.

Up until now, the elderly man receives a month living subsidy for old party members. Of his six children, his daughter that does housework and farming is also a Tibetan theatre performer in the local folk art group, and when added with the 10 acre harvest, the total house enjoys an income of more than 10,000 annually.