由于大量人口不从事生育和生产，并且成为神权政治压榨的工具，导致社会资源严重匮乏，人口增长长期停滞。据19世纪中期成书的《圣武记·西藏后记》记载，清乾隆二年(1737年)理藩院汇造西藏达赖、班禅所辖地区，共有喇嘛31.62万人以上，而当时西藏(不含今昌都地区)共有人口约109万。到20世纪50年代初，西藏人口依然徘徊在100多万，200多年间几乎没有增长。
利用宗教加强对社会的控制，是神权政治的突出特点。原国民政府蒙藏委员会驻拉萨办事处官员、20世纪40年代在西藏工作的著名藏学家李有义在回忆文章《西藏，神秘的和不再神秘的》中感叹道：“西藏的农奴遭受着如此残酷的剥削和压迫，他们为什么不起来反抗呢？我也向农奴问过这个问题。不料他们的答复却是‘第，赖哉’，意为这是业果。他们相信今世受苦是前世造了孽，今世受苦才能洗净罪孽，下世就能转生到更好的境界。这就是喇嘛对他们的教导，而藏民是坚信不疑的。”在李有义看来，正是这种思想控制，使“农奴一生一世都是为未来积累功德，贵族用鞭子抽他们，他们还以为是在为他们洗罪呢！”
Since a large proportion of the population were not engaged in economic activity and reproduction, but were used as tools of oppression by the religious power, there was an acute shortage of social resources, and demographic growth had remained stagnant for a long period of time. According to "Tibet" from Annals of Military Events in Qing Dynasty written by Wei Yuan (1794-1851) in the mid-19th century, the Department of Minorities Affairs in 1737 (the second year of Qing Emperor Qianlong's reign) produced a report on the areas under the jurisdiction of the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Erdeni, which found that there were more than 316,200 lamas in Tibet, from a regional population (excluding present-day Qamdo) of only 1.09 million. By the early 1950s, the local population still stood around 1 million, having seen hardly any increase in 200 years.
Using religion to maintain a tight control over society was a prominent feature of theocracy. Li Youyi, an official stationed in Lhasa by the Commission for Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs of the Nationalist Government, and a Tibetologist who worked in Tibet in the 1940s, lamented the fact in his essay "Tibet, the mysterious and the un-mysterious": "Why didn't the serfs rise up and rebel against such cruel oppression and exploitation in Tibet? I asked them this question, and was shocked by their answer. They said, 'This is the result of karma.' They believed they had done evil in a previous life, and had to suffer in this life in order to wash away their previous sins and reincarnate into a better next life. This was what the lamas preached to them, and what they firmly believed." In the words of Li Youyi, it was such thought control that made the serfs "willing to toil all their life to accumulate merits for the future, and when the aristocrats whipped them, they thought it was helping them wash away their sins."
亲历西藏的英国人查尔斯·贝尔在《十三世达赖喇嘛传》中说：“你下一辈子是人还是猪，难道对你没什么关系吗？达赖喇嘛能保你投胎成人，当大官，或者更好一些——在一个佛教兴盛的国度里当大喇嘛。”他进而指出：“毫无疑问，喇嘛采用了精神恐怖手法以维持他们的影响和将政权继续控制在他们手中。”
——等级森严，践踏人权，封建农奴制在东方的最后堡垒
Charles Bell, a Briton who lived in Tibet, wrote in his book Portrait of a Dalai Lama: The Life and Times of the Great Thirteenth, "Does it not matter to you whether you are reborn as a human being or as a pig? The Dalai Lama can help to ensure that you will be reborn as a human being in a high position, or, better still, as a monk or nun in a country where Buddhism flourishes." He firmly believed that the lamas had used spiritual terrorism to maintain their influence and to hold the power in their hands.
- Rigid hierarchy and trampling on human rights - the last fortress of feudal serfdom in the East
上一篇：《西藏发展道路的历史选择》白皮书（中英对照）II
下一篇：《中国的军事战略》白皮书（中英对照）III
微信公众号搜索“译员”关注我们，每天为您推送翻译理论和技巧，外语学习及翻译招聘信息。