This year marks the 50th anniversary of Tibet's Democratic Reform.

Half a century ago, Tibetan people of all ethnic groups, under the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC), quelled an armed rebellion by Tibet's reactionary upper-class and launched the Democratic Reform to emancipate serfs and abolish theocratic rule.

In old Tibet, the three estate holders - local administrative officials, aristocrats and upper-class monastery lamas - who accounted for just 5 percent of Tibet's population, controlled almost all of the region's land and pastures, and the majority of livestock. Meanwhile, serfs, who accounted for 95 percent of the region's population, were landless.