Source: China News Service WeChat public account
"The snowy mountains do not fall, the rivers do not dry up, and they will be enslaved forever."
Recently, this reporter interviewed Qi Jiguang (Tibetan name is Kelsang Zepei), the author of the book "For the Heavenly Light of Tibet" in the ancient city of Dukezong in Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province. After sitting in his home, the interview was over, and the TV was playing "Animal World", and Qi Jiguang couldn't help but remember his "serf" father-in-law.
The picture shows a photograph of Qi Jiguang's father-in-law's grandfather in his later years. Courtesy of Qi Jiguang
"In his later years, my father-in-law loved to watch TV, and he only loved to watch Animal World." Qi Jiguang said that his father-in-law's name was Ba'a Lord, and "Ba" was the honorific title that the villagers regarded him as their father's generation.
Qi Jiguang recalled that when his father-in-law was alive, he was silent. And when the two or three liquors are down, the ears are slightly red, and he will tell his legendary stories, and the opening statement is often, "There are more footprints after the snow, and more words after drinking" This classic Tibetan proverb ...
Slavery
The old home of the abbot is in Noxi Village, Diqing Prefecture, and was once a large and honest family, with ranches and calves full of fences, and in the morning, they grazed, and the end was connected to the mountain opposite the gate.
Before liberation, banditry in the Diqing area was frequent, and the people had no days of peace. In the year when the lord was eight years old (1918), nearly a thousand bandits swept the Diqing Shangri-La, burned down the cottages, abducted cattle and sheep, and the whole family of eight lived in the ruins.
The picture shows the old photo of the serfs of Diqing Shangri-La before liberation (data map). Photo courtesy of the Propaganda Department of the Cpc Shangri-La Municipal Party Committee
Instead of going it alone, a terrible plague spread again. Six members of the family died one after another, leaving him and his brother alone. The plague also caused many people to go bankrupt, some uprooted from their homes, some forced into slavery.
Because of their young age, the two brothers had to go to the countryside to beg for food and live.
One day, on the way for the brothers to beg for food, an old grandmother from the same village said to them with kindness, "Poor child, your brothers have been sold by the 'genus card' (village-level regime), if you can escape, run away!" "The news is like a thunderbolt on a sunny day, which is even worse.
escape? Where to escape? In the evening, the two brothers returned to the water mill where they stayed last night, and the two of them relied on each other for warmth. Unconsciously, it was dawn, and the brother who slept next to him was gone. After losing his brother, the grandfather felt even more like he had fallen into the sea and into the abyss.
At that time, my brother was only twelve years old and did not understand the world, but he knew that slaves were beaten and scolded under the eaves of people, doing cattle and horse work, and eating pig and dog food, so they fled in a hurry at night. The young lord cried and looked around for his brother La rong, and suddenly a few big men sprang up from the thorn bushes on the side of the road, dragging the young lord to the home of Toshi Songqian in Zhongdian (now Shangri-La). It turned out that the "genus card" sold the lord only seventeen silver dollars to the Qianzong family.
The eight-year-old grandfather, whose baby teeth have not yet been replaced, has become a slave who "does not fall in the snowy mountains, does not dry up the rivers, and is a slave for eternity". Entering the door of Qianzong's house, the master became the nineteenth slave of his family. The slaves had to work for his family's yak farm and harvest 300 acres of land for his family.
At that time, the old man was still alive, a man in his early sixties, an addict, who would smoke a gun in his hand every night, swallow clouds and vomit fog, and ask the lord to wait by his side.
The old man always likes to ride a horse, always fast horse whip, tell the lord to run after the horse, a little disobedience, then raise the horse whip to the lord.
escape
Two years later, the abbot was in his early teens, and Chinese New Year's Eve that year, the whole family of Toshi Qianzong was busy worshipping ancestors and making Chinese New Year's Eve meals, and slaves could not interfere. The master quietly climbed up to the top of the building to sneak around, and suddenly had the idea of escaping. The owner touched the top of the toilet from the roof of the building, ventured to jump down, did not know that he had injured his foot, had to climb back to Qianzong's house, and was beaten up.
When the master recovered slightly, he was taken to the alpine pasture. Who knows that life on the pasture is more bitter, the pressure is greater, and it is not good to lose a cow. The slaves who grazed with their masters were most afraid of losing their cattle.
One day, the master and the slave Zhishi, who was eight years older than him, went to drive firewood, and Zhishi offered to escape, and the two of them immediately hit it off, fled in the direction of the rural city of Sichuan, and went to the township of Zhishi to find his brother, while the grandfather wandered around alone.
At that time, the township was the world of the head man and bandit leader Gua Dingba, and the lord was arrested and handed over to him. Within a few days, The Master saw this demon draw his sword and slash at the head of a slave Zhuo Gang who had been kidnapped from Zhongdian. The lord had a premonition that sooner or later he would become a ghost under his sword. So he had the idea of fleeing, and connected two slaves.
Soon, the opportunity was finally waited. One day, Guadingba was doing a happy event, drinking and partying, gambling money, and dancing. In the second half of the night, the guests walked away for most of the time, and Gua Dingba and the people around him lay on the ground. The master carried three rifles and bullet belts of Guadingba, and the cat stepped out of the courtyard and ran away from the town, probably out of a bag of cigarette kung fu, heard the shouts behind them, the gunshots were loud, and chased after them, fortunately, the sky was not yet clear, and the chasers also knew that the master had a gun in his hand, and did not dare to venture closer.
The three agreed to take the road of Ge We as the safest, because Gua Ding Ba often robbed Ge We and formed a feud. That night, the Lord and they entered the Ge we Realm, only then did they withdraw the bullets in the top hall and hurry for two days to the county seat of Zhongdian county, each of them to make a living.
Ah Lord thought to himself, if you give this gun worth three or five hundred silver dollars to Qianzong, it will be enough to redeem yourself, right? The lord entered the Qianzong family full of hope, the old toast died, and the eldest son inherited the toast position. Xiao Toast repeatedly held the gun, "The gun is a good gun, but unfortunately, when you are a slave, it is the flesh of the bones that are born, so you will admit your fate." ”
A few days later, the abbot was driven up the mountain and worked as a shepherd in the pasture of the toast. However, the original intention of the master to disobey as a slave was not lost, and he still planned to wait for the opportunity to escape.
One day a month later, there was a yak that gave birth to a calf, and the foreman asked the lord to find it, and turned around in the forest for a while, but still did not see the shadow of the calf and cow, but saw the Jinsha River at his feet, and the owner followed the road down the mountain, reached the river in one breath, and crossed to the other side.
A inquiry, it turned out to be Lijiang's Judian, in Judian mixed for a few days, really the road is narrow, one day, the road came a group of people, closer, only to see that it is the Zhongdian head of the hegemony Wang Xueding, Wang is a regular visitor of the Qianzong family, at a glance recognized the lord, "Are you not a slave of the Songqian family?" How did you get here? Wang Xueding's entourage of thugs again escorted the lord into Qianzong's house.
The abbot, who did not bow to fate, was almost desperate at this time, "Fleas can't jump out of the bed no matter how much they jump."
The picture shows the dazzling ancient city of Shangri-La Dukezong at night. Photo by Xiaoyan
liberate
Near the liberation of Diqing, the grandfather and another toast family's long-term worker had children, according to historical customs, slaves can only join the wild, have no right to marry, children grow up, girls belong to the female slave owners, boys belong to the male slave owners, still can not change the slave status.
In May 1950, Diqing was liberated, and in view of the particularity of ethnic relations, social and political problems in the border minority areas, social and political problems, social reform was not carried out, and the party and the government devoted themselves to developing the local economy, culture, education and health undertakings to improve the people's lives.
In October 1952, the Zhongdian county-level yak farm was established, and the cadres of the county government construction section selected and dispatched herdsmen in the county town and surrounding rural areas.
Since the lord entered the county cattle farm, he ended the days of receiving bowls under the slave master's rice spoon, and his body and mind were relaxed, and his work was endless.
One day, Qianzong rode to the county cattle farm, checked the milk level in the copper pot and loudly reprimanded the owner. The lord was furious, held up the shotgun of the anti-beast in the field and shouted, "Put away your stinky habits, otherwise I will calculate the old and new accounts together." "After liberation, Qianzong did not dare to commit crimes at will."
By 1957, Diqing had implemented peaceful reforms, ending the thousand-year-old feudal lordship system. The land reform task force and the peasants' association asked the owner to complain about the crimes of the slave owners, but the owner only said that it was his own bad life, that he had escaped from the tiger's mouth, that he still could not get rid of the slave body, and that it was the Communist Party that saved many slaves.
After the land reform, the grandfather and his wife were finally reunited and were assigned a house. Zhongdian County set up a town cattle farm, and he became a cattle farm worker... After a lifetime of dealing with cattle, he has also become a generation of livestock breeding masters, and is respected by the villagers as "Lord Ba".
In his later years, the grandfather loved to watch TV, and he only loved to watch "Animal World". Over eighty years old, the lord had a childlike heart and became a veritable "old naughty boy". Playing regularly with his neighbors and several of his grandchildren seemed to make up for his missing childhood.
In the 1980s, the grandfather died at the age of 83 under the filial piety of his children and grandchildren.
After listening to the story of the lord, the grandson of the lord was practicing the piano at home, and after listening to the melodious tone, the reporter walked out of Qi Jiguang's house.
In the evening, the lower moon climbs up into the snowy plateau sky, and the "Moonlight City" DukeZong is "lit up" by the brilliant lights. Blowing a cool breeze at 16 °C, the reporter followed the bustling tourists into the ancient city, with clear stone slabs, exquisite houses, quaint streets, beautiful Turtle Mountain... Intersected with the moonlight, it forms an antique Tibetan landscape.
The picture shows the square street in the center of Dukezong Ancient City, where Tibetan people and tourists dance together and dance a unique traditional ethnic square dance. Photo by Miao Chao
In the four square streets of the ancient city center, there is a festive and peaceful party at night, and the people and tourists dance together and dance the unique traditional ethnic square dance. Looking up at Quadrilateral Street, you can see the world's largest prayer wheel, reflecting the golden and brilliant lights that rotate slowly and sacredly.
Reporter: Miao Chao, Shi Guanglin