LHASA, May 23 (Xinhuanet) -- The signing of the "17-Article Agreement" on the peaceful liberation of Tibet in Beijing 50 years ago turned a new page in the history of Tibet.

Legqog, chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Regional government, said that in the past 50 years, Tibetans have walked out of an old life which was dark, backward, uncivilized, poor and closed, into a new life which is bright, modern, civilized, economically prosperous and open, resulting in earthshaking progress.

The old Tibet, with its feudal serfdom, was a very dark and decayed society. The three major kinds of serf owners, who accounted for less than five percent of the population in Tibet, owned serfs and slaves who made up more than 95 percent of the Tibetan population.

Moreover, productivity in the old Tibet was very low, and the local economy was stagnant, so the broad mass of serfs did not have enough to eat and wear. The old Tibet far outstripped medieval Europe in terms of cruelty and gloom. The signing of the 17-Article Agreement in 1951 is considered a turning point in the history of Tibet and also a great victory in the national policy of the Communist Party of China (CPC). It reflected the common aspirations of Tibetans and other ethnic groups in China, destroyed the imperialist conspiracy of splitting up the motherland and laid down a solid foundation for promoting unity of the Chinese nation.

The democratic reform movement that followed eight years later fully overthrew the dictatorship of upper-class lamas and nobles who combined religion with politics and feudal serfdom, and former serfs became masters of their own destinies.

Tibet has since bid farewell to decline and walked on a road of prosperity. The Tibet Autonomous Region was established in 1965 when the first regional people's congress of Tibet was convened.

So far, the Tibet Autonomous Region has drafted more than 150 kinds of local legislation which involve all aspects of life in Tibet. Out of all the National People's Congress (NPC) deputies, 19 are from Tibet, over 80 percent of whom are people of Tibetan background or other ethnic groups. Tibetans and people of other ethnic groups account for 80 to 90 percent of deputies in people's congresses at all levels in Tibet. Tibetans and people of other ethnic groups also make up 74.9 percent of Tibet's total number of cadres.

The central government of China has invested or allocated through fiscal subsidies more than 50 billion yuan to Tibet in the past 50 years, starting up many rounds of construction. By 2000, Tibet's gross domestic product (GDP) was 11.74 billion yuan, a rise of more than 30 times over that of 1951. About 95 percent of farmers and herdsmen in Tibet have solved the problem in finding enough to eat and wear and are heading for prosperity.

In the meantime, the region has scored good harvests in agricultural production for 13 years running. In the old Tibet, there were definitely no modern industries, but today's Tibet is capable of achieving 1.83 billion yuan in industrial output value, up 11 times from that in 1959.

There was only one small hydropower station designed to generate electricity for a minority of the upper class in Tibet before the peaceful liberation. Tibet has developed new energy resources dominated by hydropower and supplemented by geothermal and solar energy, and it is now blessed with 401 power stations which are capable of generating 660 million kwh annually.

Fifty years ago, because there were no highways in Tibet, the car Britain gave to the 14th Dalai Lama could only run on the two- km earth road from the Potala Palace to the Dalai Lama's summer palace, known as Norbu Lingka. Tibet has built a transport network centered on Lhasa, the regional capital, since the peaceful liberation, with the total length of highways amounting to 25,300 km.

Within five years, highways will extend to all the counties in Tibet, while a railway line will connect Golmud in Qinghai Province to Lhasa. Construction of the Golmud-Lhasa railway, considered to be the highest in the world, will start in July this year.

Mobile phones, the Internet, wireless paging and postal services are common means of communication among ordinary Tibetans at present day. Tibet has also begun a new era wherein satellites and fibre-optic cables are used as efficient tools for communication.

Tibet has witnessed all-round progress in different social causes in the past 50 years. Thanks to progress in education, 85 percent of school-age children in Tibet attend school, while the illiteracy rate among young people has dropped from 97 percent in the old Tibet to the present 39 percent.

Progress has been made in press and publication causes in today 's Tibet where traditional culture is well protected and a fine medical care and public health network has been established. The average life span for Tibetans has been raised from 36 years in 1950 to today's 67 years.

Raidi, chairman of the Standing Committee of the Tibet Autonomous Regional People's Congress, who witnessed the peaceful liberation of Tibet, said the 50 years since Tibet's peaceful liberation were 50 years when the Tibetans changed their own destinies.

"In the past 50 years, Tibetan people have gained universal human rights, become masters of the state and exercised the rights of masters," said Raidi.