Nangqên County
Nangqên County
囊谦县 · ནང་ཆེན་རྫོང་། Nangchen | |
|---|---|
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.png) Location of Nangqên County (red) within Yushu Prefecture (yellow) and Qinghai | |
  Nangqên Location of the seat in Qinghai | |
| Coordinates: 32°12′11″N 96°28′52″E / 32.203°N 96.481°E | |
| Country | China |
| Province | Qinghai |
| Autonomous prefecture | Yushu |
| County seat | Xangda |
| Area | |
• Total | 12,741 km2 (4,919 sq mi) |
| Population (2020)[1] | |
• Total | 90,307 |
| • Density | 7.0879/km2 (18.358/sq mi) |
| Time zone | UTC+8 (China Standard) |
| Postal code | 815200 |
| Website | www |
| Nangqên County | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chinese name | |||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 囊谦县 | ||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 囊謙縣 | ||||||
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| Tibetan name | |||||||
| Tibetan | ནང་ཆེན་རྫོང་། | ||||||
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Nangqên County, or Nangchen (Tibetan: ནང་ཆེན་རྫོང་།, Chinese: 囊谦县), is currently a county of the Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture and is the southernmost county-level division of Qinghai province, China, bordering the Tibet Autonomous Region to the south. Until 1955, the region was known as the Kingdom of Nangchen.[2] It was one of the five kingdoms of the historical region of Do Kham.[citation needed]
The county seat is Sharnda, or Shamda (Tibetan: ཤར་མདའ་, Chinese : 香达, pinyin : Xiangda), built in a side valley and on the right bank of the Dza Chu (upper reaches of the Mekong). In 2000, the county's population amounted to 57,387 people, inhabiting a surface of 11,539 km2 (4,455 sq mi).
History
[edit]The county's name is derived from the former king (nang chen rgyal po) and Kingdom of Nangchen, a tribal confederation that emerged as a unified Buddhist kingdom in the 13th century.[3] The present-day's county comprises the core area of the old kingdom of Nangchen.
Memories of the Kingdom of Nangchen play a role among Tibetan refugees who came to India from the area. Scholar Maria Turek reported that in 2015 she heard about “a man who went to various Tibetan communities in India, introducing himself as ‘the king of Nangchen’ not without some success, even though he had no credentials to prove his claim.”[4]
The last king of Nangchen, Tashi Tsewang, stayed in power in the region after the 1955 official disestablishment of the Kingdom. Between 1956 and 1959, he sent soldiers fighting against communist Chinese in the Kham rebellion, a troubled episode before the 1959 Tibetan uprising. He died during the Cultural revolution.[5]
A Yelpa Kagyu monastery, Tana Monastery (Jang Tana), was founded by Yelpa Yeshe Tsek in 1068. It is considered a branch monastery of Tsurpu.[6][7][8][9]
Culture
[edit]While most of Qinghai Tibetans are of Amdo culture, Nangchen, and more broadly the Yushu prefecture, is of Kham culture and its people speak Kham dialect.[10]
Most of Tibetan areas are dominated by the Gelug movement (often called yellow-hats) of Tibetan buddhism, but in Nangchen, the Kagyu movement (part of the red-hats) is the majority.[11]
Administrative divisions
[edit]| Name | Simplified Chinese | Hanyu Pinyin | Tibetan | Wylie | Administrative division code |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Town | |||||
| Xangda Town (Xarda, Xiangda) | 香达镇 | Xiāngdá Zhèn | ཤར་མདའ་གྲོང་རྡལ། | shar mda' grong rdal | 632725100 |
| Townships | |||||
| Zhêca Township (Baizha, Bêca) | 白扎乡 | Báizhā Xiāng | སྤྲེལ་ཚྭ་ཞང་། | sprel tshwa zhang | 632725200 |
| Jiqu Township | 吉曲乡 | Jíqǔ Xiāng | ལྕི་ཆུ་ཞང་། | lci chu zhang | 632725201 |
| Nyagla Township (Niangla) | 娘拉乡 | Niánglā Xiāng | ཉག་ར་ཞང་། | nyag ra zhang | 632725202 |
| Mozhong Township (Maozhuang) | 毛庄乡 | Máozhuāng Xiāng | མོའོ་གྲོང་ཞང་། | mo'o grong zhang | 632725203 |
| Gyozhag Township (Juela) | 觉拉乡 | Juélā Xiāng | སྐྱོ་བྲག་ཞང་། | skyo brag zhang | 632725204 |
| Domba Township (Dongba) | 东坝乡 | Dōngbà Xiāng | སྡོམ་པ་ཞང་། | sdom pa zhang | 632725205 |
| Gaxung Township (Gayang) | 尕羊乡 | Gǎyáng Xiāng | ཀ་གཞུང་ཞང་། | ka gzhung zhang | 632725206 |
| Ji'nyinsib Township (Jinisai) | 吉尼赛乡 | Jínísài Xiāng | ལྕི་ཉིན་སྲིབ་ཞང་། | lci nyin srib zhang | 632725207 |
| Zhongxog Township (Zhogxog, Zhuoxiao) | 着晓乡 | Zhuóxiǎo Xiāng | འབྲོང་ཤོག་ཞང་། | 'brong shog zhang | 632725208 |
Climate
[edit]Nangqên has a dry-winter humid continental climate (Köppen Dwb) featuring freezing, clear and dry winters, mild, rainy and cloudier summers, and substantial diurnal temperature variation throughout the year.
| Climate data for Nangqên (elevation 3,644 m (11,955 ft)) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 18.3 (64.9) |
17.1 (62.8) |
23.8 (74.8) |
24.2 (75.6) |
25.7 (78.3) |
28.7 (83.7) |
29.0 (84.2) |
28.3 (82.9) |
25.4 (77.7) |
24.6 (76.3) |
18.5 (65.3) |
16.1 (61.0) |
29.0 (84.2) |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 4.0 (39.2) |
6.5 (43.7) |
9.7 (49.5) |
13.4 (56.1) |
17.0 (62.6) |
19.4 (66.9) |
21.3 (70.3) |
21.2 (70.2) |
18.8 (65.8) |
13.4 (56.1) |
8.9 (48.0) |
5.4 (41.7) |
13.3 (55.9) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | −5.2 (22.6) |
−2.0 (28.4) |
1.7 (35.1) |
5.3 (41.5) |
9.1 (48.4) |
12.3 (54.1) |
14.1 (57.4) |
13.7 (56.7) |
10.9 (51.6) |
5.3 (41.5) |
−0.3 (31.5) |
−4.3 (24.3) |
5.1 (41.2) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | −12.3 (9.9) |
−9.0 (15.8) |
−5.0 (23.0) |
−1.2 (29.8) |
2.9 (37.2) |
7.0 (44.6) |
8.7 (47.7) |
8.2 (46.8) |
5.6 (42.1) |
−0.1 (31.8) |
−6.8 (19.8) |
−11.3 (11.7) |
−1.1 (30.0) |
| Record low °C (°F) | −23.2 (−9.8) |
−20.8 (−5.4) |
−16.8 (1.8) |
−10.7 (12.7) |
−8.1 (17.4) |
−1.7 (28.9) |
−0.6 (30.9) |
−1.8 (28.8) |
−3.6 (25.5) |
−10.6 (12.9) |
−17.2 (1.0) |
−25.8 (−14.4) |
−25.8 (−14.4) |
| Average precipitation mm (inches) | 3.1 (0.12) |
3.8 (0.15) |
8.7 (0.34) |
18.6 (0.73) |
59.0 (2.32) |
122.3 (4.81) |
112.4 (4.43) |
99.9 (3.93) |
86.5 (3.41) |
34.3 (1.35) |
4.5 (0.18) |
1.4 (0.06) |
554.5 (21.83) |
| Average precipitation days (≥ 0.1 mm) | 2.8 | 3.4 | 5.5 | 10.5 | 16.5 | 22.5 | 20.7 | 18.1 | 19.2 | 12.5 | 2.9 | 1.5 | 136.1 |
| Average snowy days | 5.0 | 6.5 | 9.9 | 12.4 | 5.0 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0 | 0.4 | 8.3 | 4.8 | 3.1 | 55.8 |
| Average relative humidity (%) | 39 | 37 | 40 | 47 | 55 | 65 | 67 | 66 | 68 | 63 | 48 | 40 | 53 |
| Mean monthly sunshine hours | 210.6 | 189.1 | 206.7 | 208.9 | 226.0 | 198.4 | 212.7 | 211.0 | 204.9 | 208.1 | 223.0 | 226.8 | 2,526.2 |
| Percentage possible sunshine | 66 | 60 | 55 | 53 | 53 | 47 | 49 | 52 | 56 | 60 | 72 | 73 | 58 |
| Source: China Meteorological Administration | |||||||||||||
Transportation
[edit]References
[edit]- ↑ "玉树州第七次全国人口普查公报（第二号）——市县级常住人口情况" (in Chinese). The Paper. 2021-06-30.
- ↑ Last King of Nangchen, JSTOR
- ↑ Maria Turek, “Return of the Good King: Kingship and Identity among Yushu Tibetans since 1951,” in Frontier Tibet: Patterns of Change in the Sino-Tibetan Borderland, ed. by Stéphane Gros, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2019, 453-488.
- ↑ Maria Turek, “Return of the Good King: Kingship and Identity among Yushu Tibetans since 1951,” in Frontier Tibet: Patterns of Change in the Sino-Tibetan Borderland, ed. by Stéphane Gros, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2019, 453-488 (482).
- ↑ བློ་བཟང་, Lobsang (2024-07-10). "Nangchen". The Land of Snows. Retrieved 2026-08-12.
- ↑ "Jang Tana". The Treasury of Lives. Retrieved 2017-08-05.
- ↑ "Tana Sengge Nam Dzong" - the Monastery of Ling, in: Andreas Gruschke, The Cultural Monuments of Tibet's Outer Provinces: Kham vol. 2 - The Qinghai Part of Kham (Yushu Autonomous Prefecture), Bangkok 2004, pp.110-115.
- ↑ Tanma Jamyang Tsultrim: "Cultural Relics of the Tana Monastery in Yushu and Gesar", in: Tibet Studies, 1991, No.1, S. 184-190.
- ↑ Tana monastery, (towards) Ji'nyinsib, Qinghai, CN. Mapping Buddhist Monasteries, accessed August 5, 2017.
- ↑ "The Qinghai part of Kham". The Land of Snows. Retrieved 2026-08-12.
- ↑ "Nangchen Travel Guide | Kham Tibet". SnowLion Tours. Retrieved 2026-08-12.