Tibetan people embrace new life after democratic reform

Photo taken on March 21, 2021 shows a portrait of Basang in Xigaze, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region. Basang, born in 1934, is a villager of Taye Village in Xigaze, China's Tibet Autonomous Region. In the old times, the family of Basang had to pay various taxes to serf owners, which made the family lead a miserable life. "The number of taxes we paid were even more than ripples in the water and stars in the sky," recalled Basang. New life began to embrace the family of Basang in 1959, after a democratic reform liberated more than 1 million people, or 90 percent of the population of the region at that time, from the feudal serfdom. Nowadays, Basang lives with his children and grandchildren. "I hope that my personal experience can deliver more people about the sufferings of the old Tibet and how lucky we are having a happy life today," he says. (Xinhua/Zhang Rufeng)