Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (simplified Chinese: 玉樹藏族自治州;
pinyinPinyin , or more formally Hanyu Pinyin , is currently the most commonly used romanization system for Standard Mandarin. Hanyu means the Chinese language, and pinyin means "phonetics", or more literally, "spelling sound" or "spelled sound"...
: Yùshù Zàngzú Zìzhìzhōu;
TibetanTibetan can refer to:*Of or relating to Tibet*Tibetan people, an ethnic group*Standard Tibetan language*Tibetan script, a writing system*Tibetan art*Music of Tibet*Tibetan culture*Tibetan food*Tibetan Spaniel dog breed*Tibetan Mastiff dog breed...
: ཡུས་ཧྲུའུ་བོད་རིགས་རང་སྐྱོང་ཁུལ་
WylieThe Wylie transliteration scheme is a method for transliterating the Tibetan script using only the letters available on a typical English language typewriter. It bears the name of Turrell Wylie, who described the scheme in an article A Standard System of Tibetan Transcription published in 1959...
: Yul-shul Bod-rigs rang-skyong-khul) is an autonomous prefecture in
Qinghai' is a province of the People's Republic of China, named after Qinghai Lake. It borders Gansu on the northeast, the Xinjiang Autonomous Region on the northwest, Sichuan on the southeast, and Tibet Autonomous Region on the southwest.- History :Qinghai was only relatively recently made a province...
. The prefecture has an
areaArea is a quantity expressing the two-dimensional size of a defined part of a surface, typically a region bounded by a closed curve. The term surface area refers to the total area of the exposed surface of a 3-dimensional solid, such as the sum of the areas of the exposed sides of a polyhedron...
of 188,794 km² and its capital is
GyêguGyêgu is the modern town which developed from the old Tibetan trade mart called Jyekundo in Tibetan and most Western sources. It is the heart of both Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture and Yushu county. The present name Gyêgu is derived from Jyekundo...
township (
Gyêgu Zhen) in
Yushu countyYushu County is a county of Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in southernmost Qinghai province. The county seat is Gyêgu , built in a side valley of the Dri Chu...
, which is the place of the old Tibetan trade mart of Jyekundo (Gyêgu).
The area belongs to the cultural realm of
KhamKham , is a region presently divided between the Chinese provinces of the Tibetan Autonomous Region, and Sichuan where Khampas, a subgroup within the Tibetan ethnicity, live. It is also one of the three traditional provinces claimed by the Tibetan government-in-exile...
in eastern
TibetTibet is a plateau region in Asia, north of the Himalayas. It is home to the indigenous Tibetan people, and to some other ethnic groups such as Monpas and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han Chinese people. Tibet is the highest region on earth, with an average...
.
Ethnic groups in Yushu, 2005 Yushu Statistical Yearbook
| Nationality |
Population |
Percentage |
TibetanThe Tibetan people are indigenous to Tibet and surrounding areas stretching from Central Asia in the North and West to Myanmar and China Proper in the East and India, Nepal and Bhutan to the south.-Demographics:...
|
288,829 |
97.25% |
HanHan Chinese are an ethnic group native to China and, by most modern definitions, the largest single ethnic group in the world.Han Chinese constitute about 92 percent of the population of the People's Republic of China , 98 percent of the population of the Republic of China , 75 percent of the...
|
7,594 |
2.56% |
HuiThe Hui people are a Chinese ethnic group, typically distinguished by their practice of Islam.Hui is the abbreviation of the full name Huihui "回回", which is the diminutive form of HuiE "回纥 / 回鶻". They form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China...
|
295 |
0.01% |
| Monguor |
138 |
<0.01% |
SalarSalar people are a Turkic people. Their language belongs to the Oghuz group, along with the Turkish language and Turkmen language....
|
64 |
<0.01% |
| Mongol |
50 |
<0.01% |
ManchuThe Manchu people are a Tungusic people who originated in Manchuria . During their rise in the seventeenth century, with the help of Ming rebels , they conquered the Ming Dynasty and founded the Qing Dynasty, which ruled China until the Xinhai Revolution of 1911, which established a...
|
22 |
<0.01% |
| Others |
12 |
<0.01% |
This statistics only includes the registered population, not the floating population which is estimated at about 50-60,000 for the entire prefecture.
Subdivisions
The prefecture is subdivided into 6 county-level divisions: 6 counties:
| Name | Wylie | ChineseChinese or the Sinitic language is a language family consisting of languages mutually unintelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the two branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
| PinyinPinyin , or more formally Hanyu Pinyin , is currently the most commonly used romanization system for Standard Mandarin. Hanyu means the Chinese language, and pinyin means "phonetics", or more literally, "spelling sound" or "spelled sound"...
| Area (km²) | Inhabitants (2000) | Administrative Seat |
|---|
YushuYushu County is a county of Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in southernmost Qinghai province. The county seat is Gyêgu , built in a side valley of the Dri Chu...
|
yus hru’u |
玉树县 |
Yùshù Xiàn |
13.462 |
77.854 |
GyêguGyêgu is the modern town which developed from the old Tibetan trade mart called Jyekundo in Tibetan and most Western sources. It is the heart of both Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture and Yushu county. The present name Gyêgu is derived from Jyekundo...
(skye rgu mdo / Jiégǔ Zhèn 结古镇) |
| Zadoi |
rdza stod |
杂多县 |
Záduō Xiàn |
33.333 |
38.654 |
Qapugtang (bya phug thang / Sàhūténg Zhèn 萨呼腾镇) |
| Chindu Chindu is a dalit cultural resource centre located in Hyderabad in India. Chindu is part of the dappu collective.It promotes Dalit arts, culture as well as empowers dalit leadership.-Administration:...
|
khri ’du |
称多县 |
Chēngduō Xiàn |
13.793 |
40.391 |
Chuqung (gru chung / Zhōujūn Zhèn 周均镇) |
| Zhidoi |
’bri stod |
治多县 |
Zhìduō Xiàn |
66.667 |
24.194 |
Gyaijêpozhanggê (rgyal rje pho brang sked / Jiājíbóluògé Zhèn 加吉博洛格镇) |
| Nangqên |
nang chen |
囊谦县 |
Nángqiān Xiàn |
11.539 |
57.387 |
Xangda ( shor mda’ / Xiāngdá Zhèn 香达镇) (historic region of Nangchen kingdom) |
| Qumarlêb |
chu dmar leb |
曲麻莱县 |
Qǔmálái Xiàn |
50.000 |
24.181 |
Yoigitan (Yuēgǎitān Zhèn 约改滩镇) |
History and Traditional Culture
Monasticism
Yushu prefecture is rich in Buddhist monasteries. Being a constituent of the former Nangchen kingdom, the area was, for most of the time, not under domination by the
Dalai LamaThe Dalai Lama is a lineage of religious officials of the Gelug sect of Tibetan Buddhism. "Lama" is a general term referring to Tibetan Buddhist teachers...
’s Gelugpa order in Lhasa. The different balance of power in this part of Kham enabled the older Tibetan Buddhist orders to prevail in Yushu.
Of the 195 pre-1958 lamaseries only 23 belonged to the Gelugpa.
An overwhelming majority of more than 100 monasteries followed and still follow the teachings of the various Kagyüpa schools, with some of their sub-sects only found in this part of Tibet. The Sakyapa were and are also strong in Yushu, with many of their 32 monasteries being among the most significant in Kham. The Nyingmapa’s monastic institutions amount to about the same number, while the
BönBön is the oldest spiritual tradition of Tibet. Tenzin Gyatso, the fourteenth Dalai Lama, has recently recognized the Bön tradition as the fifth principal spiritual school of Tibet, along with the Nyingma, Sakya, Kagyu, and Gelug schools of Buddhism, despite the long historical competition of...
po are only met with in one lamasery they share with the Nyingmapa.
Prior to collectivization in 1958, the entire monastic population of present-day Yushu TAP amounted to more than 25,000 Buddhist monks and nuns, with approximately 300 incarnate lamas among them. On the average about three to five per cent of the population were monastic, with a strikingly higher share in Nangqên county, where monks and nuns made up between 12 and 20 % of the community.
External links