UNCOMFORTABLE FACTS IN OLD TIBET

Before joining in the PLA, Wang studied engineering at the National Central University in Kuomintang-controlled Nanjing.

As a young Communist swearing to fight for the poor, he was deeply impressed and uncomfortable about the strict hierarchy in Tibetan society and the suffering of serfs.

"Everywhere I went in Tibet, I saw serfs bow deeply, unbind their long plaits and stick their tongues out, a Tibetan way of showing respect and fear when encountering a noble. They dared not to look into the eyes of a noble person when talking," he said.

On the first day of the Tibetan New Year in February, 1952, Wang witnessed a strange "new year routine" at a large manor at Gyangze owned by a rich noble, Gashi.

As he recalled, a dozen serfs were invited by the noble for "tea" that day. Those who had paid enough rent and were considered dutiful were seated on cushions and offered butter tea; others sat on the ground and were offered clear tea. Those who paid the least rent or were considered insubordinate got huge clay jars filled with cold dirty water.

The chamberlain and a couple of servants held down one such man by his arms and legs, pinched his nose to force him to open his mouth and poured down the whole jar of water.

"I saw that man groaning, struggling. At last his stomach swelled and his eyes rolled back, so that the whites were showing," Wang said. "Later I learned from other serfs that this would happen every New Year's Day. A serf going through this usually got sick and some even died."

The noble and his wife watched the whole process from the balcony of the house.

Wang and his comrades could not stop it or interfere, because, according to the 17-article agreement on Tibet's peaceful liberation, the central government promised not to change the existing political system nor force the regional government to reform it.

Under the same agreement, PLA troops in Tibet stayed away from temples.

"When the troops arrived, our commanders visited local nobles and senior monks, bringing them gifts like tea and silk and introducing our policy to them. I took part in several such visits."

"Except when on official visits and when we were invited to rituals at festivals, we seldom went to temples," Wang recalled.

But he learned about the dark side of monastic life from local friends, serfs and open-minded nobles.

Temples held great power in old Tibet. They could force serf families on their land to send their children into the temples, which was one of the duties of these families. They could also apply to the religious authorities in Lhasa to seize people from outside and make them monks, Wang said. "These were two major ways to maintain the number of monks."

"Monks from poor families took up the toughest work in temples. They barely had the time to study sutras. Many were illiterate. Pretty teenage monks would suffer sexual harassment from powerful senior ones."

Wang and other soldiers were not well-prepared for these conditions. "At first we could not understand why we had to befriend nobles and senior monks. It was different from what we did in other places of the country -- the poor were our friends. We received quite an education about the special situation in Tibet," Wang said.

The education included learning Tibetan. In 1952, Wang was already a fluent Tibetan speaker.