Tibetannet

A LV women’s leather purse, an Omega watch, a Montblanc fountain pen…, maybe you would think this is an exhibition of luxurious products when seeing these things. Actually, it is not, these are just articles for daily use of the Phalha family – a noble family in the old Tibet from the 1950s.

Entering the Phalha Manor located in Gyantse County of Shigatse City of Tibet Autonomous Region and looking through every single original product, we can’t help exclaiming the luxury in the life of nobles in the old Tibet at that time; in contrast to this, is the lodging place of the serfs in the manor, which reflects perfectly the miserable life of all the extensive serfs.  

The Phalha Manor, also known by its full name Phajo Lhakhang, is situated at Paljor Lhunpo Village of Jangra Township which is located 4 kilometers away from Gyantse County to the southwest. It once was one of the 12 grand noble manors in the old Tibet, and also the only old Tibetan manor that has been completely preserved so far.

The Phalha Manor has a large back garden with plenty of old trees. The main building of the manor is a three-story building; its third floor is the living area of the noble family, composed of a praying hall, a sun lounge, a guest hall and bedrooms. The indoor area is richly ornamented and magnificent.  

“This is the mahjong room, these are British whiskies, and Indian cigarettes and they are all real things from those days; this is the hostess’s bedroom, the cosmetics on the dressing table are from Britain and France, the leather purse is one of LV’s new models during those years. This is the guest hall, those hung on the wall are ferret and leopard skins, and those that cover the couch are golden monkey skins and spotted deer skins. ”

The narrator Phurbu Tsering said: “The third floor just preserves and reflects the real life of the manor owner in those years, the articles that are displayed on the second floor marvel people even more.”

After going down the wooden stairs to the second floor’s display room, people will be trembling with fear seeing the religious name that was made from the shanks of little girls, foot-cuffs for locking the serfs, and beating sticks for hitting serfs. Piles of gold, silver and jade wares, silks, especially plenty of imported luxurious products vividly reveal the luxurious life of the Phalha noble family during that time.

Phurbu Tsering said that, the owner of this manor is Tashi Wangdu, many members of the Phalha noble family that he belongs to were local high-rank officials of the government of the old Tibet, amongst them, there are five people who were in charge of Kalon. During its golden age, the Phalha family had 37 manors in Tibet, over 15,000 mu of land, 12 pastoral lands, 14,000 domesticated animals and over 3,000 serfs.  

“In the old Tibet, the serfs that accounted for 95 percent of the total population, although they worked really hard the whole day, they lived a life just like hell, suffering starvation, wearing shabby clothes, their lives are just like mere straws; yet the “three big land-owners”(government officials, nobles and monastery high-rank monks) that only number to 5 percent of the population lived the life like heaven.”

Phurbu Tsering, turning 32 years old this year, said with a heavy heart: “Both my father Bazin and my mother Lahba Tsangjo used to be the serfs of the Phalha manor. When I was young, they often told me the stories about the miserable life during those years, and told me that, it was the Communist Party who turned millions of serfs including them into the owners living a happy life.”

“My father is still doing good, he is 77 years old this year. Nowadays, our family has farming land, house, livestock, living a better-off life. My mother always says: ‘The life we live today would have not been even imagined in our dreams before’.” Phurbu Tsering said.

The dwellings of the then serfs was just located diagonally from the manor. The narrow adobe houses are about 1.4 meters high that people could enter only by bending down. There is no window and total darkness so that people could barely see the furnishings: a fireplace, several blackened jars, and at the foot of the wall, a pile of weeds and broken felt forming the place for serfs to sleep.

“Accurately speaking, this is still the living quarter of ‘high-level’ serfs, yet normal serfs would stay together with cows and sheep”. Phurbu Tsering explained. “The so-called ‘high-level’ serf means that they could master a certain production skill, for example, Tibetan wool weaving, Tibetan carpet weaving, wine brewing, spinning and sewing.”

In 1959, Tashi Wangdu followed the 14th Dalai Lama to escape to India. Considering the Phahla Manor has a special historical meaning, the local government has properly preserved it. In 2013, the Phahla Manor was listed as a key historical site under state protection.

In 2015, the Shanghai aiding-Tibet team invested 2.5 million yuan (403.2 thousand US dollars) to support the Gyantse County, restoring and repairing the overall environment and the back garden of the manor. And a newly built service facility could provide convenience for tourists both at home and abroad.

The Paljor Lhunpo Village nowadays has become clean and tidy with cement roads constructed; many villagers have built small two-story Tibetan style buildings, every household hangs the Five-Starred Red Flag on top of the house.

Over 90 percent of the villagers living in the village are the descendants of the serfs of the Phalha Manor, Phurbu Tsering said.

Nowadays, the Paljor Lhunpo Village has become a well-known wealthy village; early in 2006, the village was evaluated by the Prefectural Party Committee (nowadays it has been dismissed as a prefectural level and established as city level) of Shigatse as a socialist new rural construction demonstration village.

The plateau in March is "smiling" under the warm sunshine and spring wind. The Phalha Manor is like an elderly man who has experienced the various ups and downs of life, telling both the story of the present and the past of Tibet.