The over one million Tibetan women living at the roof of the world in China'sTibet Autonomous Region account for 51 percent of Tibet's total population. Over 95 percent of the women are of the Tibetan nationality and the rest are of the Han, Hui, Moinba, Lhasa, Nu and Naxi nationalities,as well the Deng and Shar-pa people.


Women in old Tibet, even up to the 1950s, lived in a society which was darker and more brutal then that of the European serfdom of the Middle Ages.They were referred to as "vjigd-med" which meant "the most low and degrading people".


Tibet was peacefully liberated in 1951.When Tibet practised the Democratic Reformin 1959, Tibetan women went from being serfs and "vjigs-med," to masters of their own countries. The first generation of women cadres, workers, doctors, teachers, scientistsand technologists has emerged amongst them.


Striding into the 1980s,along with the tide of China's policy of opening up to the world, Tibetan women have become entrepreneurs, managers, lawyers, as well as translators who have a good knowledge of international trade.Tibetan women have also appeared among groups of Chinese studying overseas.


Today,Tibetan women are considered "half of the sky" in new Tibet's socialist construction, and an indispenseable force in the socialist construction of the motherland.