A flag-raising ceremony is held at Potala Palace Square, Lhasa, capital city of China's Tibet autonomous region, to celebrate the 58th Serfs Emancipation Day on March 28, 2017. The annual Serfs Emancipation Day is held to commemorate the 1959 democratic reform in Tibet, which ended feudal serfdom and freed about one million Tibetan serfs. [Photo /China Daily]

March 28 is the 58th anniversary of millions of serfs' emancipation in Tibet.

On March 28, 1959, Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai signed an order of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, announcing the dissolution of the former local Tibetan government. Since then, Tibet ended its theocratic feudal system similar to that of medieval Europe, allowing the serfs to share the land, livestock and other means of production.

On January 19, 2009, the People's Congress of Tibet Autonomous Region made March 28 a commemoration day for Tibetan serfs' liberation.
 
Although it has been nearly 60 years since their liberation, former slave Phurbu still remembers clearly that his slave parents used to carry wood from Lhoka to Lhasa. "My parents put a thick piece of Tibetan wool on their shoulders and backs as the rope used to carry wood might cut into their shoulders. They worked so hard, but we even could not fill ourselves up with highland barley."

"Even if the snow mountain turned to be butter, the lords would take it; even if the river water turned to be milk, we would still be unable to drink it; although my parents gave me life, my body was owned by the slave owner". Those ancient Tibetan folk songs vividly describe the tragic fate of the slaves.

China's abolition of feudal serfdom in Tibet in the 1950s is a continuation of the human "anti-slavery" movement. As early as March 1807, the United Kingdom which firstly completed industrial revolution made slavery illegal in the Empire; in August 1833, they announced that slavery was illegal in all British colonies. The first French Republic officially declared "abolition of slaves" in February 1794.
 
In recent years, countries from around the world have commemorated the abolition of slavery in different ways. In 2005, the United States decided to build the first slavery history museum in Virginia; on May 10, 2006, French President Jacques Chirac hosted a ceremony in Paris's Luxembourg Park to celebrate France's abolition of slavery, and confirm May 10 as a day to commemorate the abolition of slavery; on August 23, 2007, the United Kingdom "Slave Port" in Liverpool commemorated the 200th anniversary of the abolition of slavery; on July 29, 2008, the United States Congress offered an official apology for the first time for implementing slavery…

Zhang Yun, an expert in Tibetology believes that slavery was a dark chapter in human history that can't be erased. It destroyed human nature, deprived human rights and suppressed people's thinking. And the liberation of Tibetan serfs that happened half a century ago is one of the greatest events in human history and has the most epoch-making significance in even the whole of "anti-slavery" history.