Comparison To Other Regions
In Europe, serfdom is associated with manorialism and was a historical phenomenon primarily of the Middle Ages. Friedrich Hayek and Mikhail Gorbachev argued, however, that the PRC's experimentation with collective farming and People's communes in the 1950s and 60s amounted to a return to government-owned serfdom. (See the Alleged Return of Serfdom.)
Debate continues as to whether pre-Communist Tibetan society was especially oppressive or was comparable to, or better than, similar social structures in nearby regions. According to the Tibetan Government-in-Exile: "In terms of social mobility and wealth distribution, independent Tibet compared favourably with most Asian countries" the fact that most Dalai Lamas, including Thubten Gyatso, 13th Dalai Lama and Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama, came from peasant families being cited as an example of this. Travelers who witnessed conditions in both China and Tibet in the 1940s found the Tibetan peasants to be far better off than their Chinese counterparts. Academics debate whether tribal cultures, such as the Mongolian nomadic steppe culture, are feudal in nature. Much of Mongolian, Tibetan and Chinese political history is inter-related but the extent of their shared social culture is uncertain.
According to the 'United Nations Research Institute for Social Development', bonded labor and other forms of economic exploitation currently exist in nearby regions including India, Nepal, and several Chinese provinces. Kamaiya, the bonded labour system in neighbouring Nepal, was formally abolished in the year 2000. In 2007 Shanxi, China was the scene of its own slave scandal that turned out to involve human trafficking and slave labor in Hebei, Guangdong and Xinjiang provinces as well. According to the U.S. Dept of State "Trafficking in Persons Report 2008" Bangladesh, Nepal, Mongolia and Pakistan are all Tier 2 countries, with China and India both on the Tier 2 watchlist. However no local regions are in Tier 3. Bonded labour may have been officially sanctioned in pre-Communist Tibet, while no bonded labour that still exists in nearby regions today is officially sanctioned by the authorities.
Read more about this topic: Serfdom In Tibet Controversy
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