Zhuokeji Chieftain's Residence 卓克基土司官寨

About Zhuokeji Chieftain's Residence

Zhuokeji Chieftain's Residence (卓克基土司官寨) is the stone-and-timber seat of the former Zhuokeji chieftains (土司) in Xisuo Village (西索村), about 7 km east of central Ma'erkang (马尔康), Sichuan. It has been a nationally protected cultural relic site since 1988.

The residence stands at roughly 2,700 m on a terrace southeast of where the Xisuo River (西索河) joins the Suomo River (梭磨河). Across the Xisuo River lies Xisuo Village, whose stone houses and Dandalun Monastery (丹达轮寺) all face the residence. People's Daily Sichuan describes the village as the most typical Jiarong Tibetan (嘉绒藏族) settlement, with walls of stone slabs bonded with yellow clay, up to a metre thick and narrowing as they rise.

The Zhuokeji chieftains were one of eighteen Jiarong chieftain houses of western Sichuan in the Qing period, with a lineage traced back to 1286. After serving in the Jinchuan campaign of 1748 they received the office of zhangguansi (长官司), and with the Songgang (松岗), Suomo (梭磨) and Dangba (党坝) houses they formed the "Four Tu" (四土); the chieftaincy was abolished in 1955. Red Army columns on the Long March came this way in July 1935, when Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and Zhu De lodged here briefly. The old building burned in 1936, and the chieftain Suo Guanying (索观瀛) built the present one on the same site between 1938 and 1940. The last chieftain, Suo Guokun (索国坤), gave it to the county government in 1989, and the Aba prefecture government paid for a full restoration in 2003.

Four wings enclose a central courtyard in a symmetrical plan. The main block measures about 37.8 m by 37.2 m and rises 19.5 m, with outer stone walls 1.1 m thick. People's Daily Sichuan counts five floors and 63 rooms joined by Han-style galleries, whose windows combine Han lattice work with Tibetan patterns. The site is also the setting that inspired Alai's (阿来) novel Chen'ai Luoding (尘埃落定, "the dust settles") and a filming location for its television adaptation.

What to look for

• The two-storey flat-roofed south wing, the only Tibetan-style flat roof among the four wings
• The chieftain's council hall (议政厅) on the third floor, where the family also lived
• The great scripture hall (大经堂), two storeys high, with a timber prayer-wheel gallery projecting outside the wall
• Wooden privies cantilevered out from the upper walls, staggered floor by floor
• The square watchtower (碉楼) joined to the third floor, used to store valuables and hide in emergencies
• The surviving stone prison beside the main building
• Xisuo Village across the river, with its flagstone lanes and Dandalun Monastery

Location & getting there

Getting to Zhuokeji Chieftain's Residence

• Search for 卓克基土司官寨 with 阿坝藏族羌族自治州 and 马尔康市.