The spiritualism which led to the barbaric conditions which existed before.
Where women were "inferior births" and they were forbidden from touching iron instruments or to look above the knees of a man. Some were burnt for giving birth to twins or for practicing the old Bon religion. Wealthy me had many wives by arranged marriages and porrer families would share one wife between several brothers. Serfs could not marry without their master's permission and could be moved from their family at will. under the Ulag system masters could demand "temporary wives"!
The many slaves and serfs were not allowed to look above the knees of nobels or lamas. 626 people held 93% of the land and 70% of the Yaks. No one was ever paid wages for work (which is actually how China destroyed their system).
The Dalai Lama was the biggest serf owner in Tibet with 6,170 field serfs and 102 house slaves. When his family fled in 1959 they still left gold, silver, 20,331 pieces of jewelry and 14,676 pieces of clothing.
This society left the bulk of the population on the brink of starvation. There traditional food was a mush of tea, yak butter and barley. A report in 1940 said that 38% never got tea and drank wild herbs and 75% were forced at times to eat grass. 50% could get butter - the only source of protein.
At the same time the Jokka Kang shrine burnt 4 tons of yak butter as offerings every single day ! ! !
One third or butter was burnt daily at the 3,000 temples - not including small household altars.
The monk declared that disease and death were cause by sinfulness and religious practices were the only protection from disease. It was a sin to kill lice or germs or rabid dogs.
So the serf had no sewers or toilets. A third of the population had smallpox, 90& had venereal disease.
Torchure and beating were widespread. Buddhist prescription against taking life meant that people would be wipped to the edge of death and then released to die "as an act of god". sutting off of hands, gouging out of eyes with hot irons, hanging by the thumbs, crippling and sewing someone into a bag and throwing them in a river were also practiced. There are even reports of the burying of children alive in monastary ground-breaking ceremonies.
