Ngari Prefecture

Ngari Prefecture
阿里地区 · མངའ་རིས་ས་ཁུལ།
Prefecture

prefecture (orange) in Tibet (light-orange)
Country People's Republic of China
Region Tibet
Prefecture seat Gar County (Burang)
Area
 • Total 304,683 km2 (117,639 sq mi)
Population
 • Total 95,465
 • Density 0.31/km2 (0.81/sq mi)
Time zone China Standard (UTC+8)
Website Ngari(Ali) Prefecture Government

Ngari Prefecture (Tibetan: མངའ་རིས་ས་ཁུལ་, Wylie: mnga' ris sa khul ; simplified Chinese: 阿里地区; traditional Chinese: 阿里地區; pinyin: Ālǐ Dìqū) is a prefecture of China's Tibet Autonomous Region. Its capital is Gar County. Its administrative centre is the town of Burang Town. The largest settlement is Shiquanhe. Ngari Prefecture includes part of the Aksai Chin area, a disputed region claimed by India but over which China exercises administrative control. The paved Xinjiang-Tibet Highway (新藏公路) passes through this area. There are well-known prehistoric petroglyphs near the far western town of Rutog.

The town of Ngari lies 4,500 metres (14,800 ft) above sea level in northwest Tibet some 1,600 kilometres (990 mi) west of the capital, Lhasa. Ngari Gunsa Airport began operations on July 1, 2010, becoming the fourth civil airport on the "Roof of the World" (shortening the trip to Lhasa to one-and-a-half hours from three or four days by car). The other airports in Tibet are Lhasa Gonggar Airport in Lhasa, Qamdo Bamda Airport in Chamdo and Nyingchi Mainling Airport.[1]

Ngari was once the heart of the ancient kingdom of Guge. Later Ngari, along with Ü and Tsang, composed Ü-Tsang, one of the traditional provinces of Tibet, the others being Amdo and Kham.

Ngari is best known for Mount Kailash, also called Sumeru, and Lake Manasarovar. Mount Kailash is 6,714 m (22,028 ft) above see level and is the main peak of the Transhimalaya (also called the Kailash Range or Gangdisê Mountains). The holy mountain and lake are associated with a number of religions: Buddhism, Hinduism, and Bon, among others, attracting numerous domestic and international religious pilgrims and tourists. Surrounding Mount Kailash are four ancient and famous monasteries: Zhabura, Chiu Gompa, Zheri and Zhozhub. Manasarovar lies 4,588 m (15,052 ft) above see level, covers an area of 412 km2 (159 sq mi) and reaches a maximum depth of 70 m (230 ft).

Subdivisions

Ali Prefecture is subdivided into seven county-level divisions: seven counties.

Map
# Name Hanzi Hanyu Pinyin Tibetan Wylie Population (2010 Census) Area (km²) Density (/km²)
1 Gar County 噶尔县 Gá'ěr Xiàn སྒར་རྫོང་ sgar rdzong 16,901 13,179 1.28
2 Burang County 普兰县 Pǔlán Xiàn སྤུ་ཧྲེང་རྫོང་ spu hreng rdzong 9,657 24,602 0.39
3 Zanda County 札达县 Zhádá Xiàn རྩ་མདའ་རྫོང་ rtsa mda' rdzong 6,883 18,083 0.38
4 Rutog County 日土县 Rìtǔ Xiàn རུ་ཐོག་རྫོང་ ru thog rdzong 9,738 77,096 0.12
5 Gê'gyai County 革吉县 Géjí Xiàn དགེ་རྒྱས་རྫོང་ dge rgyas rdzong 15,483 46,117 0.33
6 Gêrzê County 改则县 Gǎizé Xiàn སྒེར་རྩེ་རྫོང་ sger rtse rdzong 22,177 135,025 0.16
7 Coqên County 措勤县 Cuòqín Xiàn མཚོ་ཆེན་རྫོང་ mtsho chen rdzong 14,626 22,980 0.63

See also

Footnotes

Further reading

External links

Coordinates: 32°30′00″N 80°06′05″E / 32.50000°N 80.10139°E