In this combo file photo, the top part shows Cering Lhamo (front) chatting with other people during a work break in 1978; and the lower part shows Cering Lhamo (R) attending a gathering to honor model workers in 1979. Cering Lhamo, 95, was born in a shabby cowshed in Lhunze County of Tibet Autonomous Region. She became a serf for a lord at the age of 6, and was forced to leave her parents and go to another manor at 12, as serfs could be sold or sent to other lords at will in the old times. Such a plight came to an end in 1959, after a democratic reform liberated more than 1 million people, or 90 percent of the population of the region at that time, from the feudal serfdom. Cering Lhamo's three-member family was granted house, farmland and sheep, living on a normal life. Cering Lhamo worked hard and organized group among villagers to help each other in farmwork. In 1970s and 1980s, she was awarded the honor of national model worker and labor heroine and elected as a deputy to the National People's Congress (NPC), China's national legislature, for two consecutive terms. Now Cering Lhamo lives with her daughter and enjoys her old age at Zedang Township of Shannan City in Tibet. (Xinhua)
