Darchen

Kangsa Village (Tibetan: གངས་ས་གྲོང་ཚོ།), poetically known as Darchen, Tarchan or Taqin (Tibetan: དར་ཆེན, ZYPY: Tarqên, simplified Chinese: 塔钦; traditional Chinese: 塔欽; pinyin: tǎqīn), is a former Bhutanese enclave,[1] currently held by the People's Republic of China and the seat of the Parga Township, Purang County, Tibet Autonomous Region, China. Thus, it is commonly referred as Parga although there is another smaller settlement formally named Parga after which the Parga Township was named, located on the east of this settlement. It was also previously known as Lhara and still signposted as such. It was previously an important sheep station for nomads and their flocks and had only two permanent buildings; only one of which survived the Cultural Revolution and is now used to house Tibetan pilgrims.[2]

Kangsa Village གངས་ས་གྲོང་ཚོ།
དར་ཆེན 塔钦
Tarqên, Taqin, Lhara
Tibetan transcription(s)
 • Tibetanགངས་ས་གྲོང་ཚོ།
 • ZYPYKangsa Chongco
 • Tibetanདར་ཆེན
 • ZYPYTarqên
Chinese transcription(s)
 • Traditional塔欽
 • Simplified塔钦
 • Pinyintǎqīn
Darchen
Darchen
Kangsa Village གངས་ས་གྲོང་ཚོ། is located in Tibet
Kangsa Village གངས་ས་གྲོང་ཚོ།
Kangsa Village གངས་ས་གྲོང་ཚོ།
Location within Tibet
Coordinates: 30°58′35″N 81°17′13″E
CountryChina
RegionTibet
PrefectureNgari Prefecture
CountyBurang County
Elevation
4,670 m (15,320 ft)
Population
 • Total
     • Major Nationalities
    		Tibetan
     • Regional dialect
    		Tibetan language
    Time zone+8

    Darchen is situated right in front of the sacred mountain, Mount Kailash. Its altitude is 4,670m (15,321 feet) and it is the starting and ending point point for the parikrama/kora of Mount Kailash.[3]

    It is only a one-day bus drive (about 330 km) from the town of Shiquanhe or (Ali) to the northeast, where Gunsa Airport, opened 1 July 2010, is located, offering flights twice a week to Lhasa and Chengdu.[4][5] A rough but motorable road extends from Darchen till a few kilometers beyond Diraphuk, below the Drolma La Pass on the Kailash pilgrimage route.[6]

    It contains a couple of restaurants and the Ganges guesthouse and restaurant, the Zhusu guesthouse next door, and the Gandise Hotel where Public Security Bureau (PSB) officers are stationed from spring until October, and where pilgrims must get their travel permit stamped, and buy a "ticket" if they wish to circumambulate Mt. Kailash. There are also a few houses, the Swiss-funded Tibetan Medical and Astro Institute and dispensary where doctors are trained in Traditional Tibetan medicine, a number of stores and kiosks, and some camping grounds. Traditionally, pilgrims only eat vegetarian food in the region due to its proximity to the sacred Lake Manasarovar and Mount Kailash.[2][7][8]

    History

    Darchen was once an enclave of Bhutan, held for almost 300 years and from where Bhutan raised revenue, until the People's Republic of China annexed it in 1959.[1][9]

    Nearby monasteries

    To the north of Tarqen there's a Tibetan Buddhist Monastery Qögu Gönba (ཆོས་སྐུ་དགོན་པ). Not very far to the south of Tarqen, the Qiu Gönba (Tibetan: བྱིའུ་དགོན་པ, Chinese: 极物寺, a.k.a. Jiu Monastery) is a Tibetan Buddhist Monastery at the settlement of Qiu or Jiu (བྱིའུ) or Xungba (གཞུང་པ) village of Parga township, by Lake Mapam Yumco.

    See also

    References
    1. Arpi, Claude (16 July 2016). "Little Bhutan in Tibet". The Statesman.
    2. Dorje (2009), p. 412.
    3. Bubriski, Kevin; Pandey, Abhimanyu (2018). Kailash Yatra: a Long Walk to Mt Kailash through Humla. New Delhi: Penguin Random House. pp. 151–160.
    4. Mayhew and Kohn (2005), p. 209.
    5. "Tibet's fourth civil airport opens."
    6. Bubriski, Kevin; Pandey, Abhimanyu (2018). Kailash Yatra: a Long Walk to Mt Kailash through Humla. New Delhi: Penguin Random House. p. 160.
    7. Kotan Publishing (2004), p. 141.
    8. Mayhew and Kohn (2005), pp. 210.
    9. United Nations A/HRC/13/40/Add.1

    Bibliography
    • Albinia, Alice. (2008) Empires of the Indus: The Story of a River. First American Edition (2010) W. W. Norton & Company, New York. ISBN 978-0-393-33860-7.
    • Dorje, Gyurme. (2009) Tibet Handbook. Footprint Handbooks, Bath, England. ISBN 978-1-906098-32-2.
    • Kotan Publishing (200) Mapping the Tibetan World. Reprint 2004. ISBN 0-9701716-0-9.
    • Mayhew, Bradley and Kohn, Michael. (2005) Tibet. 6th Edition. ISBN 1-74059-523-8.
    • Bubriski, Kevin and Abhimanyu Pandey. (2018) Kailash Yatra: a Long Walk to Mt Kailash through Humla. Penguin Random House, New Delhi. ISBN 978-0670091119
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