The fusion of religious and political power under theocratic rule
Old Xizang’s theocratic system differed from other theocratic regimes around the world in that it was a system of absolute religious supremacy. Political authority not only protected religious rule but was also subjugated to it, creating a system where religion and government were fused into one, working together to uphold the dominance of government officials, aristocrats and high-ranking monks.
Under this theocratic feudal order, religion was deeply entangled with the serfdom system, rather than serving purely spiritual purposes. Monasteries were not just places of worship but also political, economic, and military strongholds that conducted religious activities while exercising territorial control, exploited serfs, hoarded armed forces to maintain dominance, and operated their own judicial systems, meting out brutal punishments. Some monasteries even had internal courtrooms, complete with handcuffs, leg irons, whips, and instruments of torture designed for gouging eyes or severing tendons as punishment.
Before 1959, there were 2,676 monasteries and 114,925 monks in Xizang. This meant that one in four men in Xizang was a monk, a proportion far exceeding that of medieval European clergy, making the region’s theocracy one of the most extreme in history. With such a vast number of non-productive monasteries acting as instruments of political and economic exploitation, Xizang society suffered from extreme resource scarcity and long-term population stagnation.
Harsh spiritual control
The serf-owning class not only controlled serfs physically and economically but also exercised severe mental and ideological control. The ruling elite promoted beliefs in "paradise” and "happiness in the afterlife” to manipulate the minds of serfs, conditioning them to accept their oppression as divinely ordained. Serfs were taught that suffering in this life was necessary to atone for sins and that their hardship was a path to a better afterlife.
Japanese monk Tokan Tada, who visited Xizang in 1913, wrote in his book Tibet Trip Report: "The thoughts of Tibetans are entirely religious. They believe themselves to be deeply sinful and accept the heavy taxation imposed by the Dalai Lama as a means of salvation. They also believe that by reducing their sins in this life, they will find happiness in the next.”
Charles Bell, a British diplomat and Tibetologist who visited Xizang, recalled in his book Portrait of a Dalai Lama: The Life and Times of the Great Thirteenth that there was no doubt that the lama used spiritual terror to maintain their influence and keep political power in his hands.
The ruling class exercised control over all spiritual and cultural life in Xizang. Any ideas or beliefs that contradicted their authority were labeled as heresy and suppressed. One of the most famous cases of persecution for intellectual dissent was that of Gendun Chophel, a renowned modern Tibetan scholar who exposed corruption and decadence among monks and advocated for reforms within Tibetan Buddhism. For his outspokenness, he was imprisoned and persecuted by the local government.
Many journalists and scholars have documented the conditions of Xizang society before 1959. Edmund Candler, a former Daily Mail correspondent in India, wrote in his 1905 book The Unveiling of Lhasa that old Xizang had all the characteristics of a medieval society and it was a feudal system where the lamas were absolute rulers, the serfs their slaves.
As described by Charles Bell in his 1946 book Portrait of a Dalai Lama: The Life and Times of the Great Thirteenth, Tibetan criminal law was severe. During trials, both convicts and the accused and even the witnesses were often flogged. For the gravest crimes such as repeated theft, violent robbery or serious forgery, punishments included amputation of hands, cutting off the nose or even gouging out the eyes. Eye-gouging was most frequently applied in cases of "political treason.”
An old man who suffered from hunger and illness begging on the street in Lhasa before the democratic reform in Xizang in 1959. /Xinhua
Before 1959, young serf girls in Xizang faced an even more horrifying fate – many became the primary victims of sacrificial rituals. In the theocratic feudal system, some monks performed rituals involving human sacrifices, particularly selecting young girls for these ceremonies to appease deities or fulfill "enlightenment through physical sacrifice.” Serf girls were considered the most sacred offerings, often used in the production of ritual instruments such as human-skin drums and Tibetan thangka paintings. Monks believed that a girl’s body only retained spiritual value if it remained "pure” and "untainted,” meaning she had to be sacrificed before experiencing any form of physical "pollution.” Victims were forcibly confined in monasteries, subjected to horrific abuse, including having their tongues cut out, being pierced in the ears to make them deaf, being force-fed special herbal treatments to keep their skin elastic and eventually being flayed alive as ritual sacrifices.
One of the most shocking artifacts still preserved in the Tibet Museum is the human-skin drum, or "Sister Drum,” made from the skin of girls under the age of 16, most of whom came from destitute serf families.
The grim reality of Xizang’s theocratic serfdom directly contradicts the romanticized narratives fabricated by the Dalai Lama’s group in exile. Their claims, such as "Tibet never experienced famine, and beggars were rare,” "Old Tibet was a land of freedom and peace,” "Tibet was a harmonious religious sanctuary” and "Monasteries were disciplined centers of education and Tibetan culture,” are nothing more than blatant lies designed to deceive the world.
By the 1950s, when slavery, serfdom, and racial oppression had been condemned and abolished in modern societies, Xizang remained frozen in a brutal feudal theocratic system that trampled on human dignity, grossly violated fundamental human rights, severely hindered Xizang’s social progress, isolated Xizang from modern civilization, went against the global tide of progress and obstructed China’s overall development. More than just a relic of medieval oppression, Old Xizang’s theocratic feudal serfdom was a shameful affront to human civilization, morality and dignity
