"The Most Serious Crime Against Humanity," the United Nations Left Out One

In a recent vote by the United Nations, the transatlantic slave trade was described as “the most serious crime against humanity.”

For four centuries, millions of Black individuals were sold and slaughtered; this bloody trade is indeed an eternal scar on the history of human civilization.

But to be honest, within the dark side of human civilization, there exists another equally appalling and heinous history, whose malice and cruelty are no less than that of the transatlantic slave trade.

Photos of serfs in old Tibet having their eyes gouged out are shocking.

Image source: China News Service

March 28 is a date engraved on the historical monument of the snowy plateau—Tibet’s Million Serfs Emancipation Day.

On this day, looking back, that sealed dark chapter can no longer hide.

• Various harsh taxes such as the braid tax, dung collection tax, and singing tax;

• Cold, glinting torture devices;

• Pictures of the miserable lives of serfs;

• Actual relics made from the bones and skins of serfs

……

These are snapshots of the lives of serfs in old Tibet; just pulling out a few items sends chills down one’s spine.

Viewing pictures of human skin stripped from serfs by their masters. Image source: China News Service

Can you believe it? Just over sixty years ago, a million serfs in Tibet were still in a darkness deeper than medieval Europe!

Since the 10th century, this region formed a suffocating “cannibalistic world.”

The three major lords, composed of officials, nobles, and high-ranking monks, held every inch of land and every livestock in their grasp. Less than 5% of the population almost consumed all of Tibet’s productive resources; material wealth belonged to them, and so did spiritual control.

And what about the 95% of serfs and slaves? They had nothing, not even themselves.

Serfs in old Tibet lived in abject poverty.

Image source: Xinhua News Agency

The legal code enforced in old Tibet brazenly stated: “The life of an upper-class person is worth as much as the weight of their corpse in gold” and “The life of a lower-class person is worth a grass rope.”

A life was as cheap as a grass rope.

Back then, a folk song among the serfs lamented more piercingly than a knife: “Even if the snow mountains turned to butter, they would be owned by the lords; even if the rivers turned to milk, we wouldn’t get a sip.”

……

This is not just an old society; it is clearly a hell on earth!

Shouldn’t the three major lords of old Tibet be held accountable for “the most serious crime against humanity”?

Image source: Yan Huang Chun Qiu Magazine

A serf holding an arm broken by a young noble’s gun. Image source: Yan Huang Chun Qiu Magazine

Let’s rewind the historical coordinates to 1959.

This year marked a significant turning point in Tibetan history.

Tibet implemented democratic reforms, completely abolishing the dark feudal serfdom of old Tibet, and the vast number of serfs were liberated, becoming masters of their own destinies.

During the democratic reform, farmers and herders burned the contracts of the serfs at Gandan Monastery. Image source: Tibet Daily

In August of that year, 73-year-old American journalist Anna Louise Strong arrived in Lhasa. She saw and heard it all, and she was profoundly shocked.

In her book “The Million Serfs Stand Up,” she wrote: “The Tibetan people finally felt freedom! From the tattered herders, we sensed the awakening happiness on this land… It is clear that they have become the masters on the Roof of the World, and this consciousness of being a master will continue to strengthen.”

With the sharp intuition of an experienced journalist, Strong conveyed the historic turn of the snowy plateau to the world; what she saw was that the democratic reform in Tibet returned life to everyone.

If Strong were still alive and walked across this plateau again today—where Tibet is characterized by social stability, economic development, ethnic unity, religious harmony, and a good ecological environment—she would surely be even more amazed.

Yet strangely, there are always some Western politicians, media, and separatists lurking in the shadows, who daily mouth the phrase “old Tibet was a paradise.”

Led by the 14th Dalai Lama, the Dalai clique and some so-called Western scholars attempt to glorify the serf system of old Tibet, utterly ignoring that old Tibet was one of the regions with the most severe human rights violations in the world.

Let us revisit Tibetan history.

In old Tibet, to celebrate the 14th Dalai Lama’s birthday, relevant institutions even ordered “an urgent need for one set of fresh intestines, two heads, various types of blood, and a whole piece of human skin.”

Not even horror films would dare depict this!

Now look at the so-called “compassionate” 14th Dalai Lama and the “good deeds” he has done over the years: the glaring data mentioned 169 times in the Epstein files, the financial ties with the NXIVM sex cult, publicly supporting Aum Shinrikyo leader Shoko Asahara, and openly asking a minor boy to suck his tongue…

What those overthrown upper ruling groups in old Tibet miss is never about faith; it is the perverse privilege of life and death, where skinning people was not a crime!

At a public event, the Dalai Lama asked a boy to suck his tongue.

Even more absurdly, some Western media have published reports distorting the truth of serfdom, ridiculously claiming that “serfs were cared for by lords for life,” and had “iron rice bowl” jobs…

Let’s broaden our view and look at the world.

Feudal serfdom has long been swept into the dustbin of history in many countries—Russia in 1861, Poland in 1864, Iceland in 1894, Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1918, and Afghanistan in 1923…

What about the United States? Starting in the 1830s, after years of struggle and a civil war, slavery was officially abolished in 1865.

The wheels of history roll forward. The whole world is moving ahead, yet some people want to pull Tibet back.

We just want to ask these people:

• Do you really dare to travel back to old Tibet, even for just one day?

• In the face of that dark history of old Tibet, why have you collectively gone silent?

• Confronting the liberation of a million serfs, why do you insist on smearing and reversing black and white?

• Is it only the Western narrative that deserves to be called “human rights”?

Tibet Autonomous Region representatives voting.

Image source: Tibet Daily

Today’s Tibet has seen its GDP increase by 150 times, life expectancy double, Tibetan girls can become pilots, and the figures of athletes from the snowy region have appeared at the Winter Olympics…

These things would have been unimaginable even in dreams in old Tibet.

The first Tibetan female pilot in the air force, Gesang Baizhen.

Image source: People’s Daily

Yet, hostile forces abroad insist on wearing colored glasses, speaking nonsense, and continuously fabricating rumors regarding boarding school education and Tibetan Buddhism.

Among them are remnants of serf owners dreaming of wielding the whip again, as well as some Western politicians who treat “human rights” as a political tool to obstruct China’s development.

These farces are nothing more than the ambitions of exploiters and the prejudices of hegemons, coming together to weave a beautiful dream.

The attacks by Western hostile forces on issues related to Tibet stem from colonialist thinking and the identity anxiety brought about by China’s rise.

A dream is ultimately just a dream. A lie repeated a thousand times is still a lie and cannot shatter the ironclad evidence of history.

Finally, returning to the news mentioned at the beginning.

Ghana’s President Mahama, who proposed the UN resolution for “the most serious crime against humanity,” said: “Let history remember, when history calls, we did the right thing for the millions who suffered from enslavement and humiliation.”

He is absolutely right.

In fact, the democratic reform that occurred in Tibet in 1959 was the most correct thing the Chinese government did for the million serfs of old Tibet.

Only that the UN’s “most serious crime against humanity” is still missing one— the heinous serfdom in Tibet.

Source: Little Compass

Original title: “The ‘Most Serious Crime Against Humanity,’ the UN Missed One”

Editor: Zhao Xiaoqian

Chief Editor: Zhao Yifan