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Preface
Tibet is a birth place of China's Tibetan
Buddhism, one of the world's three major
branches of Buddhism. Tibetans have a
long history of Buddhist belief. For centuries,
the population was ruled by the three
estate holders--officials, upper-class
lan1as and aristocrats in the system of
"temporal and religious administration",
who also held the lion's share of social
wealth. Buddhist culture took precedence
over Tibetan minority culture. Monastries
were scattered all over the land, and
monks and nuns accounted for l0 percent
of the population.
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