Nangqên County


Nangqên County, or Nangchen or Nangqian County, is a county of the Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture and is the southernmost county-level division of Qinghai province, China, bordering the Tibet Autonomous Region to the south.
The county seat is Xangda, built in a side valley and on the right bank of the Dza Chu. In 2000, the county's population amounted to people, inhabiting a surface of.

History

The county's name is derived from the former king and kingdom of Nangchen, a tribal confederation that emerged as a unified Buddhist kingdom in the 13th century. In the 18th century, the kingdom recognized the ultimate authority of the Chinese emperors, but remained largely autonomous until 1951, when the last king, Trashi Tsewang Dorjé, accepted the incorporation of the kingdom of Nangchen into China, serving as the head of a newly established “Government of the Tibetan People’s Autonomous District of Yushu or Upper Kham.” The present-day's county comprises the core area of the old kingdom of Nangchen.
Memories of the kingdom of Nangchen play a role in local politics, and among Tibetan refugees who came to India from the area. Scholar Maria Turek reported that in 2015 she heard about “a man who went to various Tibetan communities in India, introducing himself as ‘the king of Nangchen’ not without some success, even though he had no credentials to prove his claim.”
A Yelpa Kagyu monastery, Tana Monastery, was founded by Yelpa Yeshe Tsek in 1068. It is considered a branch monastery of Tsurpu.

Administrative divisions

Nangqên is divided into one town and nine townships: