Nangqên County

Nangqên County, or Nangchen (Tibetan: ནང་ཆེན་རྫོང་།, Chinese: 囊谦县), is currently 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. Until 1951, the region was known as the Kingdom of Nangchen.^[2] It was one of the five kingdoms of the historical region of Do Kham.^{[citation needed]}

Nangqên County 囊谦县 · ནང་ཆེན་རྫོང་། Nangchen
County
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.nangqian.gov.cn

Nangqên County
Chinese name
Simplified Chinese	囊谦县
Traditional Chinese	囊謙縣
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Nángqiān Xiàn
Tibetan name
Tibetan	ནང་ཆེན་རྫོང་།
Transcriptions Wylie nang chen rdzong Tibetan Pinyin Nangqên Zong

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

Tana Monastery (Jang Tana)

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.^[3] 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.”^[4]

A Yelpa Kagyu monastery, Tana Monastery (Jang Tana), was founded by Yelpa Yeshe Tsek in 1068. It is considered a branch monastery of Tsurpu.^[5][6][7][8]

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, elevation 3,644 m (11,955 ft), (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)
Mean daily maximum °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)
Mean daily minimum °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
Percentage possible sunshine	66	60	55	53	53	47	49	52	56	60	72	73	58
Source: China Meteorological Administration[9][10]

Transportation

• China National Highway 214