落后的封建农奴制以及政教合一的神权政治，使旧西藏成为一个贫富分化极其悬殊的社会。至20世纪50年代末，占西藏人口不足5%的三大领主及其代理人几乎占有西藏全部耕地、牧场、森林、山川、河流、河滩以及大部分牲畜。据统计，1959年民主改革前，西藏有世袭贵族197家，大贵族25家，其中居前的七八家贵族，每家占有几十个庄园，几万克土地(15克相当于1公顷)。十四世达赖家族占有27座庄园、30个牧场，拥有农牧奴6000多人。十四世达赖本人手上有黄金16万两，白银9500万两，珍宝玉器2万多件，有各种绸缎、珍贵裘皮衣服1万多件。而占西藏人口95%的农奴和奴隶，则一无所有，处境悲惨，毫无人权可言。对这些人，西藏有民谚称：“生命虽由父母所生，身体却为官家占有。纵有生命和身体，却没有做主的权利。”
——封闭落后，远离现代文明，绝非想象中的“香格里拉”
This backward social structure led to a chasm of wealth in old Tibet. By the late 1950s, the three major stakeholders and their agents, who made up less than 5 percent of the population, owned almost all of the land, pastures, forests, mountains, rivers and flood plains, and most of the livestock. Before Democratic Reform in 1959, there were 197 hereditary aristocratic families, including 25 major ones, the top seven or eight of whom each possessed dozens of manors and over 1,000 hectares of land. The family of the 14th Dalai Lama owned 27 manors, 30 pastures, and over 6,000 serfs. The Dalai Lama alone had 160,000 taels (one tael = 30 grams) of gold, 95 million taels of silver, over 20,000 pieces of jewelry and jade ware, and more than 10,000 pieces of silk clothing and rare furs. Meanwhile the serfs and slaves, who accounted for 95 percent of the population, had nothing and lived a miserable life with no human rights at all. As a Tibetan proverb goes, "Life given by parents, body controlled by officials. Though they have life and body, they are not masters of their own."
- Closed, backward and isolated from modern civilization - bearing no resemblance to the "Shangri-la" fantasy
20世纪30年代，英国作家詹姆斯·希尔顿在《消失的地平线》一书中，描绘了梦幻般美妙绝伦的人间乐土——“香格里拉”。此后，追寻“香格里拉”成为许多人的梦想，有人甚至把西藏视为“香格里拉”的原生地。然而，这只是人们的善良愿望，旧西藏根本不存在“香格里拉”。
旧西藏的落后从以下情况可略窥一斑：直至1951年和平解放时，西藏没有一所近代意义上的学校，青壮年文盲率高达95%；没有现代医疗，求神拜佛是大部分人医治疾病的主要办法，人均寿命只有35.5岁；没有一条正规公路，货物运输、邮件传递全靠人背畜驮；仅有一座125千瓦的小电站，且只供十四世达赖及少数特权者使用。
In the 1930s, British novelist James Hilton in his Lost Horizon depicted an earthly paradise, which he called "Shangri-la." Since then, many have dreamed of searching for this fictional place, and some have even taken Tibet as the prototype. But "Shangri-la" was no more than a fantasy, and there was nothing at all in old Tibet that corresponded to the Utopian images of "Shangri-la."
The backwardness of old Tibet can be seen from the following facts: Until its peaceful liberation in 1951, Tibet did not have a single school in the modern sense; its illiteracy rate was as high as 95 percent among the young and the middle-aged; there was no modern medical service, and praying to the Buddha for succor was the main resort for most people if they fell ill; their average life expectancy was 35.5 years; there was not a single standard highway, and all goods and mail had to be delivered by man and beast of burden; and the region's single hydropower station, with a generating capacity of 125 kw, served only the 14th Dalai Lama and a few other privileged people.
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