Dalai Lama family owned 6,000 serfs

How much property did the 14th Dalai Lama own before fleeing Tibet in 1959?

A great deal, according to a white paper titled Fifty Years of Democratic Reform in Tibet, recently published by the Information Office of the State Council. Following is an article published in the People's Daily yesterday in response to readers' inquiries:

In 1959, the Dalai Lama personally owned 160,000 liang (a Chinese weighing unit equal to 50 grams) of gold, 95 million liang of silver, more than 20,000 pieces of jewelry and jadeware, and more than 10,000 pieces of silk and satin fabric and rare fur clothing, including more than 100 robes inlaid with pearls and gems, each worth tens of thousands of yuan.