Taktser

Taktser or Tengtser (Tibetan: "Roaring Tiger") is a Tibetan village in the cultural region of Amdo.

Taktser was originally an area of pasture land for the larger village of Balangtsa, about two hours walk away. Cattle were brought to feed on the the fertile grazing lands, which caused them to give very rich milk. Later, when people realized that this was also a good place to farm, permanent houses were built, and the village comprised about thirty cottages by the time Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama was born.

The village is on the route from Xining, which was the seat of local Chinese government administration, to Labrang Tashi Khyi, the largest monastery in the province after the famous Kumbum Monastery. ["Tibet is My Country: Autobiography of Thubten Jigme Norbu, Brother of the Dalai Lama as told to Heinrich Harrer", p. 21. First published in German in 1960. English translation by Edward Fitzgerald, published 1960. Reprint, with updated new chapter, (1986): Wisdom Publications, London. ISBN 0-86171-045-2.]

Taktser or Tengtser is the Tibetan name of the village of Hongya (红崖村 "Hongya cun", "Hongaizi" in the local dialect), together with 13 other villages forming the "Shihuiyao Hui-nationality township (石灰窑回族乡)". Shihuiyao is situated in the County of Ping'an (平安县), which belongs to the district of Haidong in the Province of Qinghai in the People's Republic of China. Despite it being under centuries of Chinese-speaking environment, it still belongs to the Tibetan cultural region of Amdo. Taktser is not, as it is usually taken to be, in the proximity of the Kumbum Buddhist monastery (Chinese: "Ta'er Si"), rather it is approximately 50 km southeast from it, and around 22 km southwest of the town of Ping'an (平安镇, Tibetan: "Bayan khar"), which is also the seat of the government for the county of the same name.

The village of Taktser gained fame as the birthplace of the 14th Dalai Lama. cite news |first=|last=|title=China keeps tight lid on riot-hit areas
url=http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/world/view/20080324-126102/China-keeps-tight-lid-on-riot-hit-areas |work= Agence France-Presse |publisher=Philippine Daily Inquirer|date=2008-03-24 |accessdate=2008-03-24] The village was called "Qijiachuan" at the time, or by the earlier name of "Qijiazhuang", which meant "the river (or home) of the family of Qi" (Ch’i in older romanisation). The latter seems to have been the Chinese kinship name of the family of the Dalai Lama, since this was the name to which the boy responded.

Footnotes

Literature

* Matthias Hermanns, Mythologie der Tibeter. Magie. Religion. Mysterien, 1955, Neuausgabe "Mythen und Mysterien, Magie und Religion der Tibeter", Essen o. J., S. 202. ISBN 3884001124
* Andreas Gruschke: "The Cultural Monuments of Tibet’s Outer Provinces: Amdo", Band 1, Bangkok 2001, ISBN 9-7475-3459-2 - [http://www.tibetinfopage.de/Amdo.htm]
* Andreas Gruschke: "Diederichs kompakt - Dalai Lama". Kreuzlingen - München 2003, ISBN 3720524612