Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture

Ganzi Prefecture 甘孜州 · དཀར་མཛེས་ཁུལ།
Autonomous prefecture
甘孜藏族自治州 དཀར་མཛེས་བོད་རིགས་རང་སྐྱོང་ཁུལ་ Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture
Larung Gar
Location of Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan
Country	China
Province	Sichuan
Prefecture seat	Kangding
Government
• Type	Autonomous prefecture
• CCP Secretary	Liu Chengming
•  Chairman	Xiang Qiu
• Governor	Xiao Youcai
• CPPCC Chairman	Shu Dachun
Area
• Total	147,681.37 km2 (57,020.10 sq mi)
Population  (2010)
• Total	1,091,872
• Density	7.4/km2 (19/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+8 (China Standard)
ISO 3166 code	CN-SC-33
Website	www.gzz.gov.cn

Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (Tibetan: དཀར་མཛེས་བོད་རིགས་རང་སྐྱོང་ཁུལ་, THL Kardzé Börik Rangkyongkhül; Chinese: 甘孜藏族自治州; pinyin: Gānzī Zàngzú Zìzhìzhōu) also known as Ganzi — is an autonomous prefecture in the western arm of Sichuan province, China, bordering Yunnan to the south, the Tibet Autonomous Region to the west, and Gansu to the north and northwest. It is sometimes spelled "Kardze" and "Garzin"^{[citation needed]} by non-government sources.

The prefecture's area is 151,078 square kilometres (58,332 sq mi). The population is approximately 880,000, with Tibetans accounting for 77.8% of the total population. The capital city of Garzê is Kangding (Dartsedo).

History[]

Garzê was traditionally part of the historical region of Kham.

During the period of rule by the Republic of China (1912–49), Garzê became nominally part of the province of Xikang, which included parts of former Kham.

In 1930, the Tibetan army invaded Garzê, capturing it without much resistance. However, in 1932, the Tibetan army withdrew after suffering defeats elsewhere at the hands of the warlord of Qinghai, Ma Bufang.^{[citation needed]} Chinese warlord Liu Wenhui reoccupied Garzê, and signed an agreement with the Tibetans formalizing his control of the area east of the upper Yangtze, which corresponds roughly with eastern Kham.^{[citation needed]}

In 1950, following the defeat of the Kuomintang forces by the People's Liberation Army, the area fell within the control of the People's Republic of China. Eastern Xikang was merged with Sichuan in 1955, where Garzê became an Autonomous Prefecture.^{[citation needed]}

Population[]

According to the census of 2000, Garzê had a registered population of 897,239 (population density: 5.94 people/km²).

Languages[]

Garzê is linguistically diverse, having many variants of Tibetan as well as several Qiangic languages:

• Kangding: Guiqiong, Muya
• Luding County: Muya
• Danba County: rGyalrong
• Jiulong County: Pumi (Southern)
• Yajiang County: Zhaba
• Dawu County: Horpa
• Xinlong County: Queyu

Religion[]

Tibetan Buddhism is historically the predominant religion practiced in Garzê. Some notable Gompas here include:

• Dzogchen Monastery
• Dzongsar Monastery
• Kandze Monastery
• Kharnang Monastery
• Nanwu Si Monastery
• Palpung Monastery
• Sershul Monastery
• Tongkor Monastery
• Larung Gar Buddhist Institute
• Yarchen Gar Buddhist Institute

Subdivisions[]

Garzê comprises 1 county-level city and 17 counties:

Map	#	Name	Hanzi	Hanyu Pinyin	Tibetan	Wylie	Population (2010 Census)	Area (km2)	Density (/km2)
	1	Kangding City	康定市	Kāngdìng Shì	དར་མདོ་གྲོང་ཁྱེར་	dar mdo grong khyer	130,142	11,486	11.33
	2	Luding County	泸定县	Lúdìng Xiàn	ལྕགས་ཟམ་རྫོང་	lcags zam rdzong	83,386	2,165	38.51
	3	Danba County	丹巴县	Dānbā Xiàn	རོང་བྲག་རྫོང་	rong brag rdzong	59,696	4,656	12.82
	4	Jiulong County	九龙县	Jiǔlóng Xiàn	བརྒྱད་ཟུར་རྫོང་	brgyad zur rdzong	62,133	6,766	9.18
	5	Yajiang County	雅江县	Yǎjiāng Xiàn	ཉག་ཆུ་རྫོང་	nyag chu rdzong	50,225	7,558	6.64
	6	Dawu County (Daofu County)	道孚县	Dàofú Xiàn	རྟ་འུ་རྫོང་	rta 'u rdzong	55,396	7,053	7.85
	7	Luhuo County	炉霍县	Lúhuò Xiàn	བྲག་འགོ་རྫོང་	brag 'go rdzong	46,558	4,601	10.11
	8	Garzê County (Ganzi County)	甘孜县	Gānzī Xiàn	དཀར་མཛེས་རྫོང་	dkar mdzes rdzong	68,523	7,303	9.38
	9	Xinlong County	新龙县	Xīnlóng Xiàn	ཉག་རོང་རྫོང་	nyag rong rdzong	50,393	8,570	5.88
	10	Dêgê County (Dege County)	德格县	Dégé Xiàn	སྡེ་དགེ་རྫོང་	sde dge rdzong	81,503	11,025	7.39
	11	Baiyü County	白玉县	Báiyù Xiàn	དཔལ་ཡུལ་རྫོང་	dpal yul rdzong	56,290	10,386	5.41
	12	Sêrxü County (Shiqu County)	石渠县	Shíqú Xiàn	སེར་ཤུལ་རྫོང་	ser shul rdzong	80,834	24,944	3.24
	13	Sêrtar County (Seda County)	色达县	Sèdá Xiàn	གསེར་ཐར་རྫོང་	gser thar rdzong	58,606	9,332	6.28
	14	Litang County	理塘县	Lǐtáng Xiàn	ལི་ཐང་རྫོང་	li thang rdzong	69,046	13,677	5.04
	15	Batang County	巴塘县	Bātáng Xiàn	འབའ་ཐང་རྫོང་	'ba' thang rdzong	48,649	7,852	6.19
	16	Xiangcheng County	乡城县	Xiāngchéng Xiàn	ཕྱག་འཕྲེང་རྫོང་	phyag 'phreng rdzong	33,170	5,016	6.61
	17	Daocheng County	稻城县	Dàochéng Xiàn	འདབ་པ་རྫོང་	'dab pa rdzong	31,113	7,323	4.24
	18	Dêrong County	得荣县	Déróng Xiàn	སྡེ་རོང་རྫོང་	sde rong rdzong	26,209	2,916	8.98

References[]

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ganzi (Garzê) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture.

• Official website of Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture
• Travel information on Garzê TAP towns and villages : along the Northern and Southern Sichuan-Tibet Highways, Tagong (in between both highways), Daocheng and Yading (south of both highways)
• Traditional folk houses in Garze, Sichuan

Coordinates: 30°02′58″N 101°57′44″E / 30.0495°N 101.9623°E / 30.0495; 101.9623