政教合一的封建农奴制度严重阻碍着社会进步。直到1951年和平解放前，西藏没有现代工商业，现代科技、教育、文化、卫生事业几乎是空白，没有一条现代意义上的公路，西藏与外界几乎隔绝；农业生产长期处于原始耕作状态，劳动工具原始简单，牧业基本是自然游牧方式，农牧品种单一且退化，整个生产力水平和社会发展十分低下，社会发育程度极低。
法国旅行家亚历山大·大卫·妮尔在《古老的西藏面对新生的中国》一书中这样描写当时人民的情形：“这些可怜的人们只能永远待在他们贫瘠的土地上。他们完全失去了一切人的自由，一年更比一年穷。”广大人民没有基本的生存权，更没有发展权。他们被剥夺了受教育的权利，不能学习民族的语言文化，到20世纪50年代时，西藏仅有2000多贵族子弟在旧式官办学校和私塾学习，青壮年文盲率高达95%。广大人民没有经济发展权，三大领主只从农奴那里榨取暴利，却不更新生产工具，农奴没日没夜地劳作，也不能创造更多的社会产品，没有社会再生产的能力。
Feudal serfdom under theocracy seriously obstructed social progress in Tibet. At the time of the peaceful liberation in 1951, there was almost no trace of modern industry, commerce, science and technology, education, culture, or health care. With no roads in the modern sense, Tibet was cut off from the outside world. Primitive farming had long been used in agricultural production, and farm tools were rudimentary. Herdsmen had to travel from place to place to find pasture for their livestock. There were few strains and breeds of grains and animals, and some had even degenerated. The level of both the productive forces and social development was thus extremely low.
French traveler Alexandra David-Neel described people's life in her book Le vieux Tibet Face a la Chine nouvelle (When Old Tibet Meets New China), "These poor people can only stay on their sterile land forever. They lose all human freedom, and become poorer and poorer each year." The people had no basic right to subsistence, much less to development. They were deprived of the right to education, and could not be schooled in their native language and culture. By the 1950s, the 2,000 or more studying in old-style government-run schools and old-style private schools were exclusively aristocrats; the illiteracy rate of the young and the middle-aged was 95 percent. The people had no right to economic development. The three major estate-holders squeezed profits from serfs, but did not update their tools; serfs worked day and night, but could not make more social products because they had no capability for social reproduction.
旧西藏政教合一的封建农奴制度之野蛮、残酷、落后，犹如黑暗的欧洲中世纪。1904年到过拉萨的英国随军记者埃德蒙·坎德勒在《拉萨真面目》中有这样的描述：当时的西藏“人民还停留在中世纪的年代，不仅仅是在他们的政体、宗教方面，在他们的严厉惩罚、巫术、灵童转世以及要经受烈火与沸油的折磨方面是如此，而且在他们日常生活的所有方面也都不例外”。
二、走上发展进步道路
西藏走上民族区域自治道路，经历了和平解放、民主改革和自治区成立三个重要历史发展阶段。这一历史发展过程，是人民翻身解放、实现当家作主的正确选择，符合西藏各族人民的根本利益。
The feudal serfdom under theocracy in old Tibet was savage, cruel and backward, like the dark society of medieval Europe. In his book The Unveiling of Lhasa, British military journalist Edmund Candler, who visited Lhasa in 1904, recorded details of the old Tibetan society: "...at present, the people are medieval, not only in their system of government and their religion, their inquisition, their witchcraft, their incarnations, their ordeals by fire and boiling oil, but in every aspect of their daily life."
II. Embarking on the Road to Development and Progress
After three important historical stages - from its peaceful liberation and democratic reform to the establishment of the autonomous region - Tibet has taken the road of regional ethnic autonomy. This historic process was a correct choice the people made to realize liberation and be their own masters, and it was in the fundamental interest of all ethnic groups of Tibet.
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