According to the Dalai Lama, a peaceful uprising on March 10, 1959 led to his exile. Is that the truth? It's high time some questions are answered today.

Today, China is modernizing. We're exploring Space, developing electric car technology and improving the lives of the ordinary Chinese.

Today, Tibet is also modernizing. Former slaves are now masters of their own destinies. Average life expectancy has almost doubled, from 35.5 in 1959 to 67 years now. Tibet's brand new university protects its glorious culture. Devotion to religions is visible everywhere.

China's journey towards modernization has not been easy. Fending off imperialist aggression was the first order of business. Then China turned inward, first with doubts and then with hope and determination, to rejuvenate an ossified ancient culture, as evidenced by a dying social-political-economic order during the late 1940s. All portend a revolution, to reassert the human rights of the poor, the oppressed, the illiterate, and, in the case of Tibet, the enslaved.

Tibet's journey was not an easy one either. For reforms in Tibet, Beijing took it slow. The 1951 17-Article Agreement states that the political system, including the "functions and power of the Dalai Lama", remains just as it was, and "shall carry out reforms of its own accord". To celebrate this agreement, Beijing, in 1954, rolled out the red carpet for the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama to a fanfare welcome. The Dalai Lama's sincere patriotic stance then was contagious. China's unbroken de jure sovereignty over Tibet was made de facto, once again, as a customary transfer of power to the new regime.

This "go-slow" policy was deferential to Tibet's unique social structure. Unlike other Chinese regions, Tibet was a theocratic feudal serfdom. Before the 1959 democratic reforms, 95 percent of Tibetans were brutally maltreated serfs owned by the ruling elite - monastery lamas, aristocrats, and local officials. Serf-slaves were reincarnated to do penance for past-life demerits by providing absolute subservient service to the elite, those who reincarnated well, like the Dalai Lama.

The owners had no responsibility for the serfs' maintenance, no interest in their survival. They worked without pay, and yet had to support themselves and pay exploitative taxes. Old Tibet was "hell on earth", which made slavery of medieval Europe and America look pale by comparison. The Dalai Lama's March 10, 2009 description of modern Tibet as "hell on earth" is pure sophistry.

In 1978, he said: "If the six million Tibetans in Tibet are really happy and prosperous as never before, there is no reason for us to argue otherwise." What went through his mind about the slaves under his command?

To allow slavery in the 20th century was unconscionable. It had to be abolished. Beijing insisted on self-initiated reforms, as agreed. But, in the end, the elite and the Dalai Lama failed to deliver. His 50-year saga of self-exile resulted from this failure.

For the elite, life was good and they wanted no change. But they committed to reform. What should be done? The separatist sentiment then surfaced, and outside contacts were made.