BEIJING, Sept. 6 -- Old Tibet was dark and backward as even in the 1950s, it was still a society ruled by feudal serfdom under theocracy, according to a white paper issued by the Chinese government Sunday.

Having existed for several centuries, this wretched system stifled human rights and destroyed human qualities, the white paper titled "Successful Practice of Regional Ethnic Autonomy in Tibet" said.

It was thus the most backward mode of human society under which the people had no democratic, economic, social, or cultural rights, and their basic human rights were not protected. Old Tibet was a far cry from modern civilization, according to the paper.

In old Tibet, the three major estate-holders and their agents accounted for only five percent of Tibet' s population, but they owned almost all of Tibet's farmland, pastures, forests, mountains, rivers, and beaches, as well as most of the livestock.

Serfs suffered three kinds of exploitations, including land rent, corvee labor - a broad term covering not only corvee, but taxes and levies, and rents for land and livestock, and usury.

Feudal serfdom under theocracy seriously obstructed social progress in Tibet. At the time of the peaceful liberation in 1951, there was almost no trace of modern industry, commerce, science and technology, education, culture, or health care, the paper said.