B3) Did slavery exist in old Tibet?
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This article is from the Tibet FAQ, by Peter Kauffner Peter.Kauffner@bearsden.org and Nima Dorje tibet@acs.ucalgary.ca.
B3) Did slavery exist in old Tibet?
The following account was written by Sir Charles Bell, who was the British
administrator for Chumbi Valley in 1904-05. At that time, Chumbi Valley was
under British occupation pending payment by Tibet of an indemnity which
resulted from the Younghusband Expedition of 1904.
Slaves were sometimes stolen, when small children, from their parents.
Or the father and mother, being too poor to support their child, would
sell it to a man, who paid them _sho-ring_, "price of mother's milk,"
brought up the child and kept it, or sold it, as a slave. These children
come mostly from south-eastern Tibet and the territories of the wild
tribes who dwell between Tibet and Assam. [Bell24]
Although the CCP cites slavery as a justification for liquidating the Dalai
Lama's government, the practice was by no means confined to Tibet. It is
estimated that in 1930 there were about 4 million child slaves in China
proper (Cantonese: _mui1jai_). [Meltzer93]
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