Nangqên County
Nangqên County, or Nangchen (Tibetan: ནང་ཆེན་རྫོང་།, Chinese: 囊谦县), is 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. It was one of the five kingdoms of the historical region of Kham.
Nangqên County
囊谦县 · ནང་ཆེན་རྫོང་། Nangchen | |
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.png.webp) 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 | |
| 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 | 7.1/km2 (18/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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The county seat is Xangda, 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
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.[2] The present-day's county comprises the core area of the old kingdom of Nangchen.
Memories of the Kingdom of Nangchen play a role in local politics, and 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.”[3]
A Yelpa Kagyu monastery, Tana Monastery (Jang Tana), was founded by Yelpa Yeshe Tsek in 1068. It is considered a branch monastery of Tsurpu.[4][5][6][7]
Administrative divisions
Nangqên County is divided to 1 town and 9 townships.
| 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
| Climate data for Nangqên (1991–2020 normals, extremes 1981–2010) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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) |
| Average high °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 (55.8) |
| 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 (41.1) |
| Average low °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 |
| Percent possible sunshine | 66 | 60 | 55 | 53 | 53 | 47 | 49 | 52 | 56 | 60 | 72 | 73 | 58 |
| Source: China Meteorological Administration[8][9] | |||||||||||||
Transportation
References
- "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.
- 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).
- "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.
- 中国气象数据网 – WeatherBk Data (in Simplified Chinese). China Meteorological Administration. Retrieved 27 August 2023.
- 中国气象数据网 (in Simplified Chinese). China Meteorological Administration. Retrieved 27 August 2023.