Banma County 班玛县

What to see

Banma's Tibetan watchtowers (班玛藏族碉楼), called 'kuari' (夸日) in Tibetan, are among the best-preserved groups of such towers in China, according to the county government. They are built of stone, of timber or of both. The stone towers are laid from interlocking slabs of stone, rarely with plumb lines or drawings; traditionally livestock were kept on the ground floor, the family lived on the second and the third held a small chapel. A specialist of the Qinghai Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology dates the tradition back at least 800 years. The towers stand mainly in the villages of Banqian (班前), Kepei (科培) and Gerize (格日则) in Dengta township (灯塔乡); Banqian alone has nearly a hundred, most over 300 years old. The Tibetan watchtower building technique of Banma entered the national intangible cultural heritage list in 2011, and Banqian was named a historic and cultural village of China in 2014.

Banqian lies 54 kilometres from the county town at 3,220 metres, with the Make River running through its farmland and forest. Villagers grow peas, black highland barley (黑青稞), potatoes and rapeseed, and the woods yield Tibetan snow tea (藏雪茶) and morels.

History

Before the 20th century Banma was a stop on the Tea Horse Road (茶马古道); the trade route from Sailaitang (赛来塘), the county seat, towards Tibet was known as the Saixi road (赛西古道), and the county government credits passing traders with bringing building styles from Sichuan, Gansu and Tibet. In 1936 the Red Army crossed the county on the Long March, the only part of Qinghai on its route; in 2019 the county unveiled a Long March monument with statues of Zhu De (朱德), Liu Bocheng (刘伯承) and He Long (贺龙), and it is developing the 'Red Army Gully' (红军沟). Most of the county's monasteries belong to the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism; Bennak, of the Pelyul branch, dates from 1824.

Highlights

• Banma Tibetan watchtowers 班玛藏族碉楼: Stone and timber towers at least 800 years old as a tradition; the building technique is national intangible heritage (2011).
• Banqian village 班前村: Nearly a hundred watchtowers beside the Make River; historic and cultural village of China (2014).
• Long March monument 红军长征纪念碑: Unveiled in 2019; Banma was the only part of Qinghai on the Red Army's route in 1936.
• Tibetan snow tea 藏雪茶: Herbal tea gathered in the Make River forest and drunk daily in Banqian.