Under Dalai Lama’s rule over Tibet
- 80-95% of the population were serfs, some monasteries owned thousands of serfs
- Disobedient serfs endured torture including having their eyes being gouged out
- The 14th Dalai Lama’s family owned 27 manors and 6000 serfs
- 95% of the population were illiterate
- Tibet had a life expectancy of just 35 years
- No modern roads, railways, or electricity infrastructure
Contrast this to modern Tibet after liberation
- Extreme poverty eliminated by 2020
- Literacy rate: 95%+
- Life expectancy: 72-74 years
- Universal primary education, with expansion of universities
- Railway infrastructure to the rest of China, with airports, highways and electrification