CERINGPE was born in 1942 in Damxung County,Lhasa,Tibet Autonomous Region.Both of her parents were serfs of the local magistrate,and her first employment,at the age of eight,was also for the magistrate.“Fetching water, making tea…I dideverything, and the slightest lapse [induties] might bring severe punishment– getting eyes gouged, tonguecut, beaten with a club, and so on. Thememory still brings me to tears today,”Ceringpe recalled. There are volumesof records about the atrocities againstserfs before the democratic reform in Tibet, but no one understands it morethan those who lived through it.