It has been 42 years since the last group of inmates was tortured here in the prison of old Tibet, now seemingly long forgotten.

The old prison stands in the northern part of Barkor Street in the old quarter of Lhasa, next to the Jokhang Monastery to the south. This is a typical Tibetan building covering 720 square meters. Built in the mid-17th century, the old prison came under the Lhasa municipal government.

It has never been open to the public since it finally closed its doors on March 28, 1959.

One sunny afternoon in 2003, however, we went there in a hope of learning something about old Tibet.

The entrance is on the second floor, where a strong disgusting stink wafts out. It was rather dark inside, earily cold, with just a ray of the sun penetrating a skylight. 

The first discovery was the dooryard to a dungeon, through which we looked down to see only a small patch of light where prisoners could get raindrops to drink. This is where the felons were locked up and submitted to many punishments such wearing wooden shackles, having stone chains placed on the neck, holding stones on the chest, wearing a stone hat and riding on a copper horse. The latter torture involved the prisoner sitting astride the copper house while a fire was lit in its belly that eventually brought death.

There are nine rooms on the second floor, each with a tiny small window but pitch dark inside. Pictures on the wall depicted two complete sheets of human skin, women with hands and feet chopped off and a young man whose eyes were gouged out.

We also found the trace of bites on the pillars by hungry prisoners. Whips, steel balls, fetters and handcuffs were left in a corner, stained and still capable of causing a feeling of revulsion.

It is recorded that many tortures were applied in the prison cutting off the nose, ears, tongue, tendon, disembowelment, beheading, cutting off the genitals, peeling off the skin while alive, dumping in a pot of boiling oil, and even parading the person after the belly was cut open around Barkor Street and killing him afterwards. All punishments were directed to plebeians and thieves, those considered guilty of misdemeanors and had the permission of the Dalai Lama.

The 14th Dalai Lama still alleged today that the old Tibet was a paradise where people enjoyed equality and the maximum human rights. Yet the truth is that with the legal code of old Tibet “Man is classified into three grades and each grade is divided into three sub-grades.” The 13-Article Legal Code prescribed “The value of one’s life varies according to the grades heshe belongs to.”

At that time，the Dalai Lama’s sutra hall held incant celebration every year, which turned out to be the right occasion for offerings from the old prison serfs’ skulls, leg bones, complete sheets of human skin and the body of a child. There were drums made of a boy’s skin, virgin girl’s leg horns that were used in the fete.

Outside the old prison is the bustling Barkor Street, where there are many who are taking ritual walks. And, with the golden top of the Jokhang Monastery shimmers in the sun, while children run and play on the street in pleasing contrast to the gloom inside the prison.