LHASA, March 28 (Xinhua) -- In early spring, the Nyangchu River, the mother river of the city of Xigaze in southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region, begins to stir. Farmers began spring ploughing and the fields are bustling with activity.

Along its banks, in a Tibetan-style courtyard in Trengring Township, Gyangze County, 80-year-old Dawa Pando grips a plow handle, working his own field. Dressed in traditional Tibetan attire, he moves with the ease of a man who has known this land for a lifetime.

Across the fields, villagers guide their plowing oxen and seeders through the rich soil. Watching them, the old man's thoughts drift back to a different time.

"When we worked for the lords in the past, we would sing a secret song," he recalls. "It went, 'The lord's granary is full, while the serf's belly is empty.'" Dawa Pando pauses, a faint smile crossing his weathered face. "Now, when we sow the seeds, every grain that grows is ours."

Born in 1945, Dawa Pando was born into servitude. His family was once the serfs who had to lease land and perform corvee labor for the lords. When he was eight years old, his father passed away, leaving only his grandmother, mother and sister at home.

As a young child, Dawa Pando was forced to take his father's place and continue working for the lord. "I had to transport tsampa and cooking oil from Gyangze to Lhasa," he recalled. "Along the way, I stayed in lodgings and travelled over mountains and valleys with the caravan. The blisters on the soles of my feet would heal only to form again."

At that time, his family of four had to pay about 350 kilograms of grain to the lord every year. However, due to a lack of water for the fields, the harvested grain was not even enough to sow next year's seed. The family squeezed into a mud house rented from the manor lord. The windowless house was short and small, only a dozen square meters, with a low doorway that required bending over to enter.

French traveller Alexandra David-Neel, who was the first Western woman to enter Lhasa, left a record in "My Journey to Lhasa" that directly exposed the miserable living conditions of serfs during her 1923 journey deep into Xizang. "All were dirty and ragged, food was coarse and often scarce," she wrote.

Changes finally took place. On March 28, 1959, people in Xizang launched a democratic reform that ended the region's feudal serfdom, thereby emancipating about 1 million serfs.

On Sept. 21 of the same year, the region passed a resolution to abolish the feudal serfdom land-ownership system, returning the land to the serfs.

Two months later, the debts of 25 serf households in Trengring were completely written off. Dawa Pando's family was allocated more than two hectares of farmland, as well as two cattle, a horse and four sheep.

As Dawa Pando touched the back of his own cattle, he felt for the first time that his life is full of hope.

In the past, it took 10 days and nine nights to travel from Gyangze to Lhasa by crossing mountains and valleys; in 2024, with the opening of the Lhasa-Xigaze Highway, the trip has been shortened to less than four hours.

According to a white paper released by the Chinese government in 2025, improved transport infrastructure and services facilitate travel across the region. The total road length grew from 65,200 km in 2012 to 124,900 km by the end of 2024. Roads in rural and mountainous areas have seen overall improvement.

From 1974, Dawa Pando successively served as the Party secretary of Trengring and the surrounding townships in Gyangze County. He led villagers in building irrigation ditches, converting dry land into irrigated fields, and undertaking other construction projects.

In 1988, Dawa Pando was elected as a deputy to the seventh National People's Congress (NPC). He flew to Beijing. Standing in the Great Hall of the People, he clenched his fists and repeated to himself, "Former serfs can now sit together with deputies from all over the country, speak up, and submit proposals and suggestions."

At the meeting, Dawa Pando, who longed to go to school but never even saw a classroom during childhood, put forward his first proposal -- to improve school infrastructure and expand teaching staff.

"Early education paves the way for a child's future," Dawa Pando said. His proposal was adopted and later put into practice.

At present, a total of 42,153 deputies to people's congresses at four levels in the autonomous region have been elected, nearly 89.2 percent of whom are from the Tibetan or other ethnic minority groups. Of the 25 deputies from the Xizang delegation to the 14th NPC, 68 percent are from Tibetan or other ethnic minority groups, including those with small populations such as the Monba and Lhoba ethnic minorities, according to the white paper.

After returning from the meeting in Beijing to Xizang, Dawa Pando made efforts to publicize rural development policies and promote projects in education, transportation, and other key sectors. Following his retirement, he devoted himself to building the village's history museum and became a grassroots storyteller, using his life experiences to inspire the younger generation to cherish their present sweet lives.

Dawa Pando always said that the first time he left Xizang, the plane stopped over in Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province, and that bowl of steaming hot dumplings was the most delicious thing he had ever eaten in his life. In Beijing, he was dazzled by the streets full of bicycles, tall buildings and fashionable clothing.

Today, He has a butter churn and a TV with surround-sound speakers at home, and during the Tibetan New Year, the dried beef and mutton can fill two freezers. "Now I can eat whatever I crave, dried curd, crispy Tibetan fritters and dumplings," he said.

In 2010, Dawa Pando's family built a two-story new house with a total floor space of 400 square meters on the site of the former threshing ground. Solar panels are neatly arranged on the roof, and the spacious grain storage room is stacked with bags of plump highland barley.

Not far away stands the old manor, now abandoned and swallowed by weeds. In the past, its nine stories loomed as a symbol of power that forced serfs to keep their eyes lowered in fear. Today, Dawa Pando would say calmly, "it's just an old house built a bit higher." ■