Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture 甘南藏族自治州

Setting and landscape

Wide grasslands cover much of the prefecture, which falls from 4,920 m to 1,172 m in Zhouqu County (舟曲县). The Amne Machin (阿尼玛卿山) and Xiqing (西倾山) ranges rise in the west and the Min and Die mountains (岷山, 迭山) in the southeast. The Yellow River crosses the southwest; the Tao (洮河), Daxia (大夏河) and Bailong (白龙江) rivers also run through it, with Têwo (迭部) and Zhouqu counties and the Langmusi area draining to the Yangtze. The prefecture government calls it a water-conservation area for both rivers.

History

The region was Western Qiang (西羌) land in early times. After the Tibetan empire conquered the Tuyuhun (吐谷浑) in 663, the Tang–Tibet road it developed ran through Gannan. Labrang Monastery (拉卜楞寺) was founded in 1709, and the Labrang administrative bureau of 1926 became a county, renamed Xiahe (夏河) in 1928 after the Daxia River. The Gannan autonomous region was set up at Labrang in October 1953; in 1956 its seat moved to Heicuo (黑措), renamed Hezuo (合作).

What to see

Labrang Monastery, beside the Daxia River in Xiahe, is one of the six great monasteries of the Gelug school; it has been a national key cultural relic since 1982, and its medical college dates from 1782. At Langmusi (郎木寺) in Luqu County (碌曲县), the Bailong River splits the town between Gansu, with the Saichi Monastery (赛赤寺), and Sichuan, with the Geerdeng Monastery (格尔登寺); the great prayer festival of the first lunar month brings ritual dances, Tibetan opera and a Buddha display.

In Têwo County, the village of Zhagana (扎尕那), Tibetan for 'stone box', impressed the explorer Joseph Rock in 1925; he wrote of terraced wheat and highland barley fields backed by huge limestone mountains and slopes of spruce and fir. Chanding Monastery (禅定寺) stands on a terrace above the Tao River, just northwest of the Jonê (卓尼) county town.

Food and local products

The Hezuo city government names juema (蕨麻, silverweed root), highland barley and yak as Gannan's signature ingredients. Juema rice (蕨麻米饭) is half rice and half juema in one bowl, sprinkled with sugar and doused with melted butter; tsampa (糌粑) is roasted barley flour kneaded by hand with a little butter tea, dried curd and sugar; Tibetan buns (藏包) are steamed, unleavened parcels of minced beef or mutton. Juema pigs (蕨麻猪) are named for foraging juema on the grassland, and butter tea (酥油茶) is churned from butter, strong tea and salt.

Highlights

• Labrang Monastery 拉卜楞寺: Founded in 1709 by the first Jamyang, Ngawang Tsondru (阿旺宋哲); its assembly hall was enlarged to 140 pillars in 1772.
• Langmusi 郎木寺: Town on the border between Luqu and Zoige (若尔盖) in Sichuan; the Gansu bank has the Saichi Monastery, a Buddha-display terrace, a white stupa and a sky-burial site.
• Zhagana 扎尕那: Village in Yiwa Town (益哇镇), Têwo County; Joseph Rock collected plants in the area in the summer of 1925.
• Daoshihe stone-cooked mutton 刀什合: An outdoor dish: seasoned mutton and red-hot pebbles are packed into a sheep's stomach, which is tied shut so the stones cook the meat.