A serf's fingers were cut off

The Tibetan Buddhlst monastic organliation of the dGe-lugs-ps Sect was a huge feudal lords cliques under the feudal serfdom in old Tibet. In the mid-20th century, the number of rnonks and nuns living in monasteries was accounted for more than 10% of the total population. Led by Dalai Lama, the abbots (mKhan-po) from the three major monasteries of dGav-Idan Monastery, vBras-spungs Monastery and Se-ra Monastery directly attended the enlarged meetings held by the local government of Tibet (bKav-shag), and was provided with the supreme decision-making power and a series of feudal privilege of the Old Tibet. Economically, prior to 1959, monasteries and high-ranking lamas occupied 36.8% of the total cultivated land in Tibet and possessed numerous grazing Iand, domestic animals and serfs. They amassed a great quantity of social wealth, constituting the major three component of the three major feudal lords in  Tibet. Above picture was the panorama of Se-ra Monastery before the 1950s.