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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, April 19, 2003

Democracy Extending to Every Corner on Tibetan Plateau

The 50-year-old Gyai'ra Losang Dainzin got familiar with the words "democracy", "election" and "human rights" from his very childhood. "It's these words that accompanied me to grow from a common citizen to a senior carder", he said.


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The 50-year-old Gyai'ra Losang Dainzin got familiar with the words "democracy", "election" and "human rights" from his very childhood. "It's these words that accompanied me to grow from a common citizen to a senior carder", he said.

At the 8th People's Congress of the Tibet Autonomous Region held not long ago, Gyai'ra, a Tibetan with no political party affiliation, was elected by congress deputies vice chairman of the autonomous region with ballots much higher than required.

As an inherited noble, Gyai'ra's father once acted as one of the four "Gelun"s , or chief executive, of the "Gaxia" government of the old Tibet. The old man said frankly in an interview, "I was directly appointed by Dalai as Gelun, without any election". "For decades, I learned carefully each word I come across about democracy".

The proposal of "democracy" and "election" in modern sense in the West could date back to the ancient Greek some two thousand years ago, but only a short history of several decades in Tibet.

Tibet witnessed democratic reform in 1959 and the founding of the autonomous region in 1965, followed by establishment of people's congress system and political consultative system. It is by that time that we first saw the words of "election" "democracy" and other related expressions in Tibetan language and script.

"Appearance of any new words is based on reality, and there is no word invented from nothing", said a noted Tibetan scholar, adding that in the past there was no such word because of the feudal serf system.

In the past Tibetans were classified into nine levels in three grades in social status, the scholar said. For serfs and slaves, which took 95 percent of the population, there was only endless laboring and numerous taxes. They possessed no right to decide production activities and no right to vote or being elected in political life. Even for officials, nobles and senior monks, which took up 5 percent of the population, only a few could enjoy the "democracy".

Now Tibet has more than 70,000 carders, all elected, and today's Tibetan language boasts a lot of new expressions including "human rights", "court", "lawyer", "citizen", "supervision", "elected" and "law suit". Last year Tibet realized election of village heads directly by villagers, a landmark that the political and democratic construction in the region is progressing and the democracy is extending to every corner on the Tibetan highland.

By PD Online Staff Li Heng


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