Tongren County (Chinese: 同仁县 ; pinyin : Tóngrén Xiàn) known to Tibetans as Rebkong[1] in the region previously known as Amdo is the capital and second smallest administrative subdivision by area within Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Qinghai Province, China. The county has an area of 3465 square kilometers and a population of ~80,000 (2002), 75% Tibetan. The economy of the county includes agriculture and aluminum mining.
The county has a number of Tibetan Buddhist temples, including the large and significant Longwu Temple of the Gelupa (Yellow Hat) sect. It is known as a center of the Tibetan thangka painting school.
In October, 2010 there were reports of large demonstrations in Tongren by Tibetan students who reportedly shouted the slogans, “equality of ethnic groups” and “freedom of language." [2]
The Tibetan language is the lingua franca of Tongren County and the surrounding region,which is populated by Tibetans and Hui people, as well as some Han Chinese and Mongols. [3]
A peculiar Chinese-Bonan-Tibetan mixed language, is spoken by some 2,000 people in the two villages of Upper and Lower Wutun, located on the eastern bank of the Rongwo River. As there is no special name for it, the linguists have dubbed it the Wutun language.[3]
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