s and smaller ones whom had a strip of their own, but were obliged to provide the nobility with service. Thus, the traditional society was composed of a small group of noble families and a large and poor peasantry. Among these peasants were both nomadic herders and those who practiced a form of subsistence farming. Tenants held their lands on the estates of aristocrats and monasteries, and paid rent to the estate-holders, in kind or by sending a member of the family to work as a domestic servant or an agricultural laborer. In addition, a tenth of the harvest went to the government as a tax and the rest of the crops (except what was needed for individual subsistence) was then stored in silos made out of stones. These were used as reserves for the years of food shortage, since the dry and fresh climate allows a quasi eternal conservation. The serfs lived in family unit and worked the feudal lords land as such. They paid rent and taxes in the form of labor, as opposed to money. The main crop was barley, which requires only three months to produce given that the climate allows no more than one crop a year. Therefore the peasants were not (as said by the Chinese) overworked or exploited. The herders on the other hand, were not tight to a land since they were nomadic people. Traditionally they did not own their cattle, which belonged to rich families, but upon agreement, they could keep the eventual increase in flock. Chinese InvasionOn 7 October 1950, 40,000 Chinese troops attacked Eastern Tibet's provincial capital of Chamdo, from eight directions. The small Tibetan force (troops and militia) were quickly defeated. In 1959, due to Maos Great Leap Forward the Chinese government confiscated the land from the Tibetan nobles, to redistribute it to the peasants. The latter, as well as nomads, lost freedom of movement and were ordered into communes, leaving great number of livestock to die. The Chinese authority, in their urge to d...
