Dalai Lama group flounders in rebuffing Tibetan serfdom

c. Glorifying monasteries under the theocracy in old Tibet as a model of traditional moral life.

The article claimed that "the role of monasteries as highly disciplined centers of Tibetan education and intellectual hubs was central to the traditional Tibetan way of life." But in fact, before the Democratic Reform of Tibet, monasteries occupied about 1.21 million ke of farmland (15 ke equal to 1 hectare) and possessed large numbers of livestock and pastures.

The three monasteries of Drepung, Sera and Gandan housed over 10,000 monks, with a possession of 321 estates, up to 10,000 ke of farmland, 450 pastures, 110,000 livestock and more than 60,000 serfs. Monasteries were also the biggest usurers, lenders of money at unlawfully high rates of interest, in old Tibet.