BEIJING, March 27 (Xinhua) -- About one million serfs gained personal freedom and became masters of the new society due to democratic reform in Tibet, said a white paper released Wednesday by China's State Council Information Office.

The reform brought fundamental changes to the Tibetan social system and laid a solid foundation for the establishment of socialism in Tibet, said the white paper.

Tibet's democratic reform destroyed the institutional shackles which infringed serfs' rights to subsistence, marriage, migration, residence, work, personal freedom, human dignity, and education, according to the document.

Noting that people's governments were established at various levels for the people to exercise their rights after the reform, the white paper said that for the first time in the history of Tibet, local governments were elected in a democratic way through the exercise of the right to vote and to stand for election.

From September 1 to 9, 1965, the First Session of the First People's Congress of Tibet was held. At this session, Tibet Autonomous Region was established, and the People's Committee of the autonomous region came into being by election.

Since 1978, Tibet has held 11 elections of deputies to the people's congresses at township level, 10 at county level, and eight at the level of municipalities having subordinate districts, according to the document.

Currently, there are 35,963 deputies to the people's congresses at all levels in Tibet. Of them, deputies from the Tibetan and other minority ethnic groups account for 92.18 percent, it said.

The rights of the people of all ethnic groups to participate in the deliberation and administration of state affairs have been fully guaranteed, according to the document.

In addition, community-level democracy is developing and improving. At the end of 2018, there were 5,756 community-level workers' unions with 497,082 members, it added.