Kham
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Kham Magar refers to an ethnic minority in the himalayan foothills of western Nepal.
Kham (Wylie transliteration: Khams; Tibetan: ཁམས; Simplified Chinese: 康; Pinyin: Kāng) province is one of several provinces comprising traditional Tibet (the others are Amdo and Ü-Tsang). During the Republic of China's rule over mainland China (1911-1949), most of the region was called Xikang Province (西康省 Xīkāng Shěng). It was, however, only a "special administrative district" until 1939, when it became the status of a Chinese province - nominally and without much cohesion.
Kham comprises a total of 50 contemporary counties, distributed between the Chinese provinces of Sichuan (16 counties), Yunnan (3 counties), and Qinghai (6 counties) as well as the eastern portion of the Tibet Autonomous Region (25 counties).
Kham has a rugged terrain characterized by mountain ridges and gorges running from northwest to southeast. Numerous rivers, including the Mekong, Yangtze, Yalong Jiang, and the Salween flow through Kham.
From the time of collapse of the Tibetan empire in the 10th century until the 1950s, the people of Kham have maintained a large degree of independence from both Lhasa and China, aided by the rugged nature of their homeland. Kham itself was never controlled by a single king, but was comprised of a patchwork of two dozen or more chiefdoms.
In 1932, an agreement signed between Chinese warlord Liu Wenhui and Tibetan forces formalized the partition of Kham into two regions: Eastern Kham, which was administered by Chinese forces, and Western Kham, which was administered by Tibet. Eastern Kham subsequently became the actual area of control of China's Xikang province. The border between eastern and western Kham is the Yangtze River - Dri Chu in Tibetan and Jinsha Jiang, or Chang Jiang respectively, in Chinese.
In 1950, following the defeat of the Kuomintang rulers of China by communist forces in the Chinese Civil War, the People's Liberation Army entered western Kham. Western Kham was then set up as a separate Qamdo Territory (昌都地区), then merged into Tibet Autonomous Region in 1965. Meanwhile, Xikang province, comprising eastern Kham, was merged into Sichuan province in 1955. The border between Sichuan and Tibet Autonomous Region has remained the Yangtze River. The northernmost region of Kham, Yushu, is part of Qinghai province since the 18th century.
[edit] See also
[edit] Further reading
- A. Gruschke: The Cultural Monuments of Tibet’s Outer Provinces: Kham, 3 vols. (2 published so far), White Lotus Press, Bangkok 2004 ff. 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
- Pamela Logan: Tibetan Rescue. The Extraordinary Quest to Save the Sacred Art Treasures of Tibet, Tuttle Publishing 2002, ISBN 0-8048-3421-0
[edit] External links
- The East Tibet Website
- Kham Tibetan language materials
- Kham Aid Foundation - assistance programs and general travel info
- Seven Days in Permitless Tibet by Tom Carter Magazine article about an overland 4WD trip across Kham
| Traditional provinces and regions of Tibet |
| Ü-Tsang (Ü | Tsang | Ngari) | Kham | Amdo |
