Former serf lives happy life after democratic reform in Tibet

Tsering poses for a portrait at home in Nyinzhung Township of Damxung County, Lhasa City of southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, April 16, 2021. Tsering, born in 1944 as a herdsman in Nyinzhung Township, recalls the old times in Tibet when heavy and various duties in pasture area squeezed the life of local people. Such a plight came to an end 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. Tsering was then distributed with cattle, grassland, built a new house and lived a happy life. Nowadays his family relies on animal husbandry and transportation, with a yearly income of over 200,000 yuan (about 30,820 U.S. dollars). (Xinhua/Sun Ruibo)