中国人民解放军进军西藏，驱逐帝国主义势力出西藏，废除帝国主义强加给西藏人民的不平等条约，是实现包括藏族人民在内的中华民族解放和独立的重大历史事件，自此彻底改变了西藏的历史命运，为实现西藏各族人民翻身当家作主提供了根本保障。

　　——废除封建农奴制，实现人民翻身作主

　　20世纪50年代中叶，西藏政教合一的封建农奴制度走到了尽头。1959年3月10日，西藏反动上层为永保政教合一的封建农奴制度不变，公然撕毁“十七条协议”，在拉萨地区发起全面武装叛乱。22日，中共中央发出《关于在西藏平息叛乱中实行民主改革的若干政策问题的指示(草案)》，要求在平息叛乱的战斗中，必须同时坚决地放手发动群众，实行民主改革。28日，周恩来总理发布国务院命令，决定解散西藏地方政府，由西藏自治区筹备委员会行使西藏地方政府职权，由十世班禅额尔德尼代理西藏自治区筹备委员会主任委员职务。与此同时，中央人民政府提出“边平叛边改革”的方针，领导西藏人民掀起了波澜壮阔的民主改革运动。通过民主改革，彻底摧毁了政教合一的封建农奴制度，实现了人民翻身解放，为建立民族区域自治制度，创造了重要社会历史条件。

The PLA troops' entry to Tibet to drive out imperialist forces and abolish unequal treaties that imperialist forces had imposed on the people of Tibet was a major historical event signifying that the Chinese nation, including the Tibetan group, had realized liberation and independence. It utterly changed the history and destiny of Tibet, and provided its various ethnic groups with a fundamental guarantee of being liberated and becoming masters.

--Abolishing feudal serfdom, and the people becoming masters

In the mid-1950s, feudal serfdom under theocracy came to an end. To preserve serfdom, the reactionary forces from the upper class of Tibet tore up the "17-Article Agreement" and staged an all-out armed rebellion in Lhasa on March 10, 1959. On March 22, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) issued the Instructions on Several Policy Issues about Carrying out Democratic Reform in Suppressing the Rebellion in Tibet (draft), demanding that troops mobilize the people to carry out democratic reform amid the battles to suppress the rebellion. On March 28, Premier Zhou Enlai promulgated a State Council decree, dissolving the local government of Tibet and ordering that local government power be taken over by the Preparatory Committee of Tibet Autonomous Region, with the 10th Panchen Erdeni acting as its chairman. In the meantime, the Central People's Government implemented a policy of "suppressing the rebellion while conducting reform," and led the Tibetan people in a surging tide of democratic reform. The reform wrecked the feudal serfdom under theocracy, liberating the people and making them their own masters, so creating important social and historical conditions for the establishment of regional ethnic autonomy.

　　废除封建农奴制度，建立起人民政权，为在西藏实行民族区域自治，提供了制度条件。到1960年底，全区成立乡级政权1009个，区级政权283个；78个县(包括县级区)和8个专区(市)也成立了人民政权。与此同时，有4400多名翻身农奴和奴隶出身的基层干部成长起来。乡级干部全是藏族，区级干部90%以上是藏族，并且有300多名藏族干部担任了县以上领导职务。

　　1961年4月，西藏各地乡一级基层普选开始，百万翻身农奴开始行使从来没有过的民主权利。1965年8月，西藏乡县选举工作完成，有1359个乡、镇进行了基层选举，有567个乡、镇召开了人民代表会议代行人民代表大会职权，西藏大约92%的地方建立了以翻身农奴和奴隶为主的乡人民政权，54个县召开了第一届人民代表会议，选出了正副县长，建立了县人民委员会，并选出了人民代表大会代表。

Abolishing the feudal serfdom and establishing the people's regime created institutional conditions for regional ethnic autonomy in Tibet. By the end of 1960, Tibet had established 1,009 organs of state power at the township level, 283 at the district level, 78 at the county level (including county-level districts), and eight at the prefecture (city) level. Meanwhile, more than 4,400 liberated serfs and slaves had become government officials at various levels. All township-level government officials were from the Tibetan group, 90 percent of district-level government officials were Tibetan, and more than 300 Tibetans held leading posts at or above the county level.

In April 1961, general elections at the township level were held all over Tibet. Hundreds of thousands of liberated serfs and slaves exercised the democratic rights that they had never enjoyed. In August 1965, elections at the township and county levels were completed in Tibet. Altogether 1,359 townships and towns conducted elections at the basic level, and 567 townships and towns held their people's congresses to exercise their functions and power. The people's democratic organs of state power at the township level were established in 92 percent of the Region, the majority of participants being liberated serfs and slaves. In addition, 54 counties held their first session of people's congresses to elect the county magistrates and deputy magistrates, established people's committees and elected deputies to the people's congresses.