Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture

Ngawa
—  Autonomous Prefecture  —
Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture རྔ་བ་བོད་རིགས་ཆ་བ༹ང་རིགས་རང་སྐྱོང་ཁུལ་ 阿坝藏族羌族自治州
Buddhist stupa and houses outside the town of Aba, Sichuan Province, China.
Ngawa Prefecture (yellow), Sichuan (light gray), China (dark gray)
Ngawa Location in China
Coordinates: 31°55′N 101°43′E / 31.917°N 101.717°E / 31.917; 101.717Coordinates: 31°55′N 101°43′E / 31.917°N 101.717°E / 31.917; 101.717
Country	China
Province	Sichuan
Prefecture Seat	Barkam
Government
– CPC Party Chief	Shi Jun (侍俊)
– Governor	Zhang Dongsheng (张东升)
Area
– Total	83,201 km2 (32,124.1 sq mi)
Population (2007)
– Total	874,000
– Density	10.5/km2 (27.2/sq mi)
– Major Ethnic Groups	Tibetan-53.72% Han-24.69% Qiang- 18.28%
Time zone	China Standard (UTC+8)
Postal code	??????
Area code(s)	0837
GDP Total	¥ 8.7 billion
GDP Per Capita	¥ 9,758
License Plate Prefix	川U
Website	http://www.abazhou.gov.cn/

Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture
Chinese name
Simplified Chinese	阿坝藏族羌族自治州
Traditional Chinese	阿壩藏族羌族自治州
Transcriptions Mandarin - Hanyu Pinyin Ābà Zàngzú Qiāngzú Zìzhìzhōu
Abbreviated as "Ngawa Prefecture"
Simplified Chinese	阿坝州
Traditional Chinese	阿壩州
Transcriptions Mandarin - Hanyu Pinyin Ābà Zhōu
Tibetan name
Tibetan	རྔ་བ་བོད་རིགས་དང་ཆང་རིགས་རང་སྐྱོང་ཁུལ་
Transcriptions - Wylie nga ba bod rigs dang ch'ang rigs rang skyong khul - Zangwen Pinyin Ngawa Poirig Qangrig Ranggyong Kü

The Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture (Tibetan: རྔ་བ་བོད་རིགས་དང་ཆང་རིགས་རང་སྐྱོང་ཁུལ་; Chinese: 阿坝藏族羌族自治州) is an autonomous prefecture in Sichuan, whose capital is Barkam town (Ch. Ma'erkang). It has an area of 83,201 km².

Ngawa, also known as Ngaba, is the site of the epicenter of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, in which over 20,000 of its residents died.

Demographics

As of 2000^[update], the prefecture's population was 847,468 inhabitants at a density of 10.19 per km²:

Ethnic group	Population	Proportion of total
Tibetan	455,238	53.72%
Han	209,270	24.69%
Qiang	154,905	18.28%
Hui	26,353	3.11%
Manchu	373	0.04%
Miao	266	0.03%
Yi	205	0.02%
Mongols	202	0.02%
Tujia	182	0.02%
Bai	101	0.01%
Zhuang	95	0.01%
others	278	0.03%

Languages

The three principal languages are Tibetan, Mandarin and Qiang.

History

The region is historically part of the Tibetan region of Amdo.

In contemporary history, most part of Ngawa was under the 16th Administrative Prefecture of Szechwan (Chinese:四川省第十六行政督察區), which was established by the Republic of China (ROC).^[1] The People's Republic of China (PRC) defeated ROC troops in this area and established the Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Sichuan by the end of 1952. It was renamed Ngawa Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in 1956, and Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture in 1987.^[2]

On May 12, 2008, a major earthquake occurred in Wenchuan County (Tibetan: lung dgu), a county in the southeastern part of this autonomous prefecture. 20,258 people were killed, 45,079 injured, 7,696 missing in the prefecture as of June 6, 2008. ^{[3] [4]}

Administrative divisions

The region is composed of thirteen counties:

Map
#	Nme	Hanzi	Hanyu Pinyin	Tibetan	Wylie	Population (2004 est.)	Area (km²)	Density (/km²)
1	Barkam County	马尔康县	Mǎ'ěrkāng Xiàn	འབར་ཁམས་རྫོང་	'bar khams rdzong	50,000	6,639	8
2	Wenchuan County	汶川县	Wènchuān Xiàn	ཝུན་ཁྲོན་རྫོང་	wun khron rdzong	110,000	4,083	27
3	Li County	理县	Lǐ Xiàn	བཀྲ་ཤིང་གླིང་༼ལི་རྫོང་༽	li rdzong	40,000	4,318	9
4	Mao County	茂县	Mào Xiàn			110,000	4,075	27
5	Songpan County	松潘县	Sōngpān Xiàn	ཟུང་ཆུ་རྫོང་	zung chu rdzong	70,000	8,486	8
6	Jiuzhaigou County	九寨沟县	Jiǔzhàigōu Xiàn	གཟི་ཚ་སྡེ་དགུ་		60,000	5,286	11
7	Jinchuan County	金川县	Jīnchuān Xiàn	ཆུ་ཆེན་རྫོང་	chu chen rdzong	70,000	5,524	13
8	Xiaojin County	小金县	Xiǎojīn Xiàn	བཙན་ལྷ་རྫོང་	btsan lha rdzong	80,000	5,571	14
9	Heishui County	黑水县	Hēishuǐ Xiàn	ཁྲོ་ཆུ་རྫོང་	khro chu rdzong	60,000	4,154	14
10	Zamtang County	壤塘县	Rǎngtáng Xiàn	འཛམ་ཐང་རྫོང་	'dzam thang rdzong	30,000	6,836	4
11	Aba County	阿坝县	Ābà Xiàn	རྔ་བ་རྫོང་	rnga ba rdzong	60,000	10,435	6
12	Zoigê County	若尔盖县	Ruò'ěrgài Xiàn	མཛོད་དགེ་རྫོང་	mdzod dge rdzong	70,000	10,437	7
13	Hongyuan County	红原县	Hóngyuán Xiàn	རྐ་ཁོག་རྫོང་	rka khog rdzong	40,000	8,398	5

Tourism

Gerdeng Monastery

Tourism produced 71.0% of the GDP of the prefecture in 2006.^[5] There are many places of interest in the prefecture. For example

• Wolong National Nature Reserve in Wenchuan County is a reserve for giant pandas. It is the best-known place to watch pandas. China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda was established there in 1980.
• Gerdeng Monastery
• Narshi Gonpa monastery
• Huanglong is a scenic and historic interest area in Songpan County.
• Jiuzhaigou Valley is a nature reserve in Jiuzhaigou County. It is known for its many multi-level waterfalls and colorful lakes, and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1992.
• Mount Siguniang (Chinese: 四姑娘山; Tibetan: སྐུ་བླ; former Chinese name: 四姑山, transcription of སྐུ), the highest point of the Qionglai Mountains, is on the border of Xiaojin County (Chinese: 小金县; Tibetan: བཙན་ལྷ) and Wenchuan County.

Further reading

• A. Gruschke: The Cultural Monuments of Tibet’s Outer Provinces: Amdo - Volume 2. The Gansu and Sichuan Parts of Amdo, White Lotus Press, Bangkok 2001. ISBN 974-480-049-6
• Tsering Shakya: The Dragon in the Land of Snows. A History of Modern Tibet Since 1947, London 1999, ISBN 0-14-019615-3

References

1. ^ Öйú°¢°ÓÖÝ
2. ^ 中国阿坝州
3. ^ "Casualties in Wenchuan Earthquake" (in Chinese). Sina.com. 2008-06-02. http://news.sina.com.cn/pc/2008-05-13/326/651.html. Retrieved 2008-06-02. 
4. ^ "Death Toll in Ngawa Prefecture Rose to 20,258 as of June 6, 18:00 CST" (in Chinese). Official website of Ngawa Prefecture Government. 2008-06-07. Archived from the original on 2008-06-09. http://web.archive.org/web/20080609043145/http://www.abazhou.gov.cn/html/2008-6/7/content_200867214914578.html. Retrieved 2008-06-07. 
5. ^ 中国阿坝州

External links

• Official website of Ngawa Prefecture Government