Sêrtar County

Sêrtar County or Serthar County (Tibetan: གསེར་ཐར་རྫོང།; Chinese: 色达县) is a county in the northwest of Sichuan Province, China, bordering Qinghai province to the north. It is one of the 18 counties under the administration of the Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, covering some 9,340 square kilometres. Sêrtar, which means "golden freedom" in Tibetan, lies in the southeast of the Tibetan Plateau and in the historical region of Kham. The vast majority of the population is Tibetan, followed by Han Chinese.

Sêrtar County
色达县 · གསེར་ཐར་རྫོང།
Serthar, Sêrda, Seda
County
Location of Sêrtar County (red) within Garzê Prefecture (yellow) and Sichuan
Location of Sêrtar County (red) within Garzê Prefecture (yellow) and Sichuan
Sêrtar is located in Sichuan
Sêrtar
Sêrtar
Location of the seat in Sichuan
Sêrtar is located in China
Sêrtar
Sêrtar
Sêrtar (China)
Coordinates: 32°16′05″N 100°19′58″E
CountryChina
ProvinceSichuan
Autonomous prefectureGarzê
County seatSêrkog (Seke)
Area
 • Total9,338.98 km2 (3,605.80 sq mi)
Elevation
4,127 m (13,540 ft)
Population
 (2020)[1]
 • Total64,681
 • Density6.9/km2 (18/sq mi)
 • Major nationalities
Tibetan Han Salar Hui
Time zoneUTC+8 (China Standard)
Postal code
626600
Area code0836
Websitewww.sdzf.gov.cn
Sêrtar County
Chinese name
Simplified Chinese色达县
Traditional Chinese色達縣
Tibetan name
Tibetanགསེར་ཐར་རྫོང། or གསེར་རྟ་རྫོང་།

Sêrtar comprises 17 towns and 66 villages. It is home to the Larung Gar Buddhist Institute, the largest Tibetan Buddhist institute in the world. The institute, which was founded by lama Jigme Phuntsok in 1980 and started off with just a few monks, now houses tens of thousands of monks and pilgrims from around the world,[2] which constitute the vast majority of the Sêrtar population. Most monks spend six to 13 years completing their training. The institute, divided into two main segments and spread over just a few square kilometres, is located in a valley and around 15 kilometres from the town of Sêrtar. A permit is occasionally required for non-Chinese nationals to enter the institute.

Sêrtar is remotely located and requires more than half a day's driving if travelling from Chengdu via Maerkang. It is also possible to travel from Xining, the capital of Qinghai. Sêrtar is at an altitude of around 4,100 metres above sea level. Temperatures range from 30 degrees Celsius in the summer and -25 degrees Celsius in the winter.

Incidents

Sêrtar is one of the places in Sichuan that witnesses occasional acts of self-immolation, usually carried out by Tibetans. For instance, in February 2012, three herders set themselves on fire, purportedly in protest.[3] On 26 November 2012, a monk allegedly self-immolated in front of the golden horse statue in Larung Gar.[4] The supposedly political motivation behind these acts, however, has always been disputed by the Chinese government.[5]

As many of the houses in Larung Gar are made of wood, they present a constant fire hazard. On the evening of 10 January 2014, a fire broke out in Larung Gar, burning down more than a dozen structures and requiring 450 rescue workers to respond to the scene; however, there were no serious casualties.[6]

Administrative divisions

Sêrtar County is divided into 5 towns and 11 townships.

Name Simplified Chinese Hanyu Pinyin Tibetan Wylie Administrative division code
Towns
Sêrkog Town
(Seke)		 色柯镇 Sèkē Zhèn གསེར་ཁོག་གྲོང་རྡལ། gser khog grong rdal 513333100
Bomda Town
(Wungda, Wengda)		 翁达镇 Wēngdá Zhèn སྦོ་མདའ་གྲོང་རྡལ། sbo mda' grong rdal 513333101
Nubsur Town
(Larung, Luoruo)		 洛若镇 Luòruò Zhèn གནུབས་ཟུར་གྲོང་རྡལ། gnubs zur grong rdal 513333102
Nyidoi Town
(Niduo)		 泥朵镇 Níduǒ Zhèn སྙི་སྟོད་གྲོང་རྡལ། snyi stod grong rdal 513333103
Gyaxoi Town
(Jiaxue)		 甲学镇 Jiǎxué Zhèn རྒྱ་ཤོད་གྲོང་བརྡལ། rgya shod grong brdal 513333104
Townships
Kêgor Township
(Keguo)		 克果乡 Kèguǒ Xiāng ཁེས་སྐོར་ཡུལ་ཚོ། khes skor yul tsho 513333201
Ragzham Township
(Razham, Ranchong)		 然充乡 Ránchōng Xiāng རགས་བཀྲམ་ཡུལ་ཚོ། rags bkram yul tsho 513333202
Kainlêb Township
(Karlêb, Kangle)		 康勒乡 Kānglè Xiāng མཁན་ལེབ་ཡུལ་ཚོ། mkhan leb yul tsho 513333203
Darcang Township
(Dazhang)		 大章乡 Dàzhāng Xiāng བརྡར་ཚང་ཡུལ་ཚོ། brdar tshang yul tsho 513333204
Dagzê Township
(Daze)		 大则乡 Dàzé Xiāng སྟག་རྩེ་ཡུལ་ཚོ། stag rtse yul tsho 513333205
Yarlung Township
(Yalong)		 亚龙乡 Yàlóng Xiāng ཡར་ལུང་ཡུལ་ཚོ། yar lung yul tsho 513333206
Qogcang Township
(Tazi)		 塔子乡 Tǎzǐ Xiāng མཆོག་ཚང་ཡུལ་ཚོ། mchog tshang yul tsho 513333207
Nyainlung Township
(Nianlong)		 年龙乡 Niánlóng Xiāng སྙན་ལུང་ཡུལ་ཚོ། snyan lung yul tsho 513333208
Horxü Township
(Huoxi)		 霍西乡 Huòxī Xiāng ཧོར་ཤུལ་ཡུལ་ཚོ། hor shul yul tsho 513333210
Xêchub Township
(Xuri)		 旭日乡 Xùrì Xiāng ཤེལ་གྲུབ་ཡུལ་ཚོ། shel grub yul tsho 513333211
Yanggo Township
(Yangge)		 杨各乡 Yánggè Xiāng ཡང་འོ་ཡུལ་ཚོ། yang 'o yul tsho 513333212
  • A monk prostrating at a shrine
    A monk prostrating at a shrine
  • A nun walking the alleys
    A nun walking the alleys
  • Children monks
    Children monks
  • A worker and her child
    A worker and her child
  • With the mountain ranges in the background
    With the mountain ranges in the background
  • Sêrtar at night
    Sêrtar at night
  • Vulture in flight during a sky burial
    Vulture in flight during a sky burial

Panoramas
Panorama of Sêrtar, facing north
Panorama of Sêrtar, facing south
Panorama of Sêrtar, facing east

Climate
Climate data for Sêrtar (1991–2020 normals, extremes 1981–2010)
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Record high °C (°F) 15.5
(59.9)		 14.1
(57.4)		 17.4
(63.3)		 20.5
(68.9)		 22.5
(72.5)		 23.6
(74.5)		 26.2
(79.2)		 23.7
(74.7)		 22.9
(73.2)		 20.9
(69.6)		 16.7
(62.1)		 13.1
(55.6)		 26.2
(79.2)
Average high °C (°F) 1.5
(34.7)		 3.5
(38.3)		 6.2
(43.2)		 9.7
(49.5)		 13.4
(56.1)		 15.9
(60.6)		 17.5
(63.5)		 17.3
(63.1)		 15.2
(59.4)		 10.2
(50.4)		 5.6
(42.1)		 2.5
(36.5)		 9.9
(49.8)
Daily mean °C (°F) −9.9
(14.2)		 −7.0
(19.4)		 −3.0
(26.6)		 1.6
(34.9)		 5.6
(42.1)		 9.1
(48.4)		 10.6
(51.1)		 9.9
(49.8)		 7.3
(45.1)		 1.9
(35.4)		 −4.5
(23.9)		 −9.0
(15.8)		 1.1
(33.9)
Average low °C (°F) −18.8
(−1.8)		 −15.4
(4.3)		 −10.2
(13.6)		 −4.8
(23.4)		 −0.5
(31.1)		 3.9
(39.0)		 5.2
(41.4)		 4.3
(39.7)		 1.9
(35.4)		 −3.5
(25.7)		 −11.4
(11.5)		 −17.3
(0.9)		 −5.6
(22.0)
Record low °C (°F) −32.2
(−26.0)		 −28.1
(−18.6)		 −23.4
(−10.1)		 −15.9
(3.4)		 −9.7
(14.5)		 −6.3
(20.7)		 −3.3
(26.1)		 −6.5
(20.3)		 −8.3
(17.1)		 −15.7
(3.7)		 −28.9
(−20.0)		 −32.0
(−25.6)		 −32.2
(−26.0)
Average precipitation mm (inches) 4.1
(0.16)		 7.3
(0.29)		 18.2
(0.72)		 31.2
(1.23)		 69.8
(2.75)		 145.2
(5.72)		 139.3
(5.48)		 114.1
(4.49)		 107.1
(4.22)		 45.0
(1.77)		 7.5
(0.30)		 3.4
(0.13)		 692.2
(27.26)
Average precipitation days (≥ 0.1 mm) 4.2 6.5 11.1 13.9 19.1 23.4 21.2 19.2 19.8 14.9 5.0 3.6 161.9
Average snowy days 6.7 9.9 15.1 17.8 12.6 1.9 0.2 0.3 2.8 15.1 8.1 5.3 95.8
Average relative humidity (%) 51 53 57 62 66 72 74 75 76 72 62 54 65
Mean monthly sunshine hours 208.2 179.9 194.7 203.8 202.7 177.5 197.8 197.3 179.5 180.0 210.0 221.0 2,352.4
Percent possible sunshine 65 57 52 52 47 42 46 48 49 52 67 71 54
Source: China Meteorological Administration[7][8]

References
  1. "甘孜州第七次全国人口普查公报（第二号）" (in Chinese). Government of Garzê Prefecture. 2021-06-04.
  2. migration (20 June 2013). "Tibetan nun dies in self-immolation attempt: Reports".
  3. LaFraniere, Sharon (6 February 2012). "Three Tibetan Herders Self-Immolate in Protest" – via NYTimes.com.
  4. "Tibetan self-immolation locations". static.reuters.com.
  5. "self immolation truth". www.chinaconsulatechicago.org.
  6. "Fire hits massive Buddhist complex in Sichuan".
  7. 中国气象数据网 – WeatherBk Data (in Simplified Chinese). China Meteorological Administration. Retrieved 13 April 2023.
  8. 中国气象数据网 (in Simplified Chinese). China Meteorological Administration. Retrieved 13 April 2023.
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