民主改革前的西藏,长期处于政教合一、僧侣和贵族专政的封建农奴制社会,其黑暗、残酷与中世纪欧洲的农奴制度相比,有过之无不及。西藏的农奴主,主要是官家、贵族和上层僧侣三大领主,他们不到西藏人口的5%,却占有西藏全部耕地、牧场、森林、山川以及大部分牲畜。 Before the democratic reform in Tibet, the feudal serfdom that had long been in a combination of politics and religion and monarchy and nobility dwarfed the cruelty of the serf system in medieval Europe. The chief serf owners in Tibet are mainly the three lords of officials, aristocrats and the upper monks. They occupy less than 5% of Tibet’s population and occupy all the cultivated land, pastures, forests, mountains and most of the livestock in Tibet.