Litang (Tibetan: ལི་ཐང་རྫོང་།; Chinese: 理塘县) is in southwest of Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan, China. In 2001, it had a population of 47,500.
Litang County
理塘县 • ལི་ཐང་རྫོང་། | |
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County | |
Litang Location of the seat in Sichuan Show map of SichuanLitang Litang (China) Show map of China | |
Coordinates (Litang County government): 29°59′39″N 100°16′09″E | |
Country | People's Republic of China |
Province | Sichuan |
Autonomous prefecture | Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture |
County seat | Litang Town |
Area | |
• Total | 13,677 km2 (5,281 sq mi) |
Elevation | 3,954 m (12,972 ft) |
Population (2001) | |
• Total | 47,500 |
• Density | 3.5/km2 (9.0/sq mi) |
Time zone | UTC+8 (China Standard) |
Website | litang |
Litang County | |||||||||||
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Chinese name | |||||||||||
Simplified Chinese | 理塘县 | ||||||||||
Traditional Chinese | 理塘縣 | ||||||||||
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Tibetan name | |||||||||||
Tibetan | ལི་ཐང་རྫོང་། | ||||||||||
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Litang is part of Kham in the Tibetan cultural zone, and several famous Buddhist figures were born here, including the 7th Dalai Lama, the 10th Dalai Lama, the 11th Tai Situpa, four of the Pabalas, as well as the 5th Jamyang Zhépa of Labrang Monastery. Düsum Khyenpa, 1st Karmapa Lama, returned here and built two monasteries, Kampo Nénang Monastery next to the Genyen Massif, where he trained the important Kagyu teacher, Drogön Rechen (Wylie: 'gro mgon res pa chen po, 1148-1218) who recognised his tulku, and the Pangphuk Monastery, founded in 1169.
It also has strong connections with the eponymous hero of the Epic of King Gesar.[1]
Litang Town (the seat of the county) itself is located at an altitude of 4,014 metres. It is on open grassland and surrounded by snow-capped mountains and is about 400 meters higher than Lhasa, making it one of the highest towns in the world.[2]
For nearly all of the county's recorded history, Litang's greatest concentration of population and center of political power has been Lithang Monastery, known formally as Ganden Thubchen Choekhorling. The town that is today the Litang County seat is adjacent to the monastery, which was originally a temple for worship of Bon. In A.D. 1580 it was converted to Gelug Buddhism by the 3rd Dalai Lama. In the centuries since, Litang Monastery has been damaged and rebuilt several times.[3]
During the 1950s, the region around Litang was one of the many areas of Tibetan armed resistance to rule of the Chinese Communist Party. A resistance group called the Chushi Gangdruk was active in the area. In 1956 the monastery was bombed by the PLA.[4] The October 5, 1956 edition of the Tibet Mirror newspaper printed a witness' drawing of this bombing of the Litang monastery, Jamchen Chokhor Ling and others by aircraft of the People's Liberation Army. The photo's caption in its original English is:
"They are killing several thousand of our freedom-loving, brave, ill-armed Khampas, with modern weapons; and distroying monasterees [sic]. The world is protesting the aggressor in Europe and W. Asia, but alas! There is no voice for Tibet."[5][6][7][8]
In August, 2007, the Litang Horse Festival was the scene of an impromptu anti-government political speech by Runggye Adak, which was followed by protests calling for his release. A crackdown officially described as "patriotic education campaign" followed in autumn of 2007, including several politically motivated arrests and attempts to force local Tibetans to denounce the 14th Dalai Lama.[9]
In 2013, one major temple of Lithang Monastery burned to the ground in an accidental fire.[10]
Litang County administers one town and 23 more rural townships:
With an elevation of nearly 4,000 metres (13,000 ft), Litang has an alpine subarctic climate (Köppen Dwc), with long, cold, dry winters, and short, cool summers with very frequent rain. The monthly 24-hour average temperature ranges from −4.9 °C (23.2 °F) in January to only 11.0 °C (51.8 °F) in July; the annual mean is 3.65 °C (38.6 °F). Over 80% of the 765 mm (30.1 in) of annual precipitation is delivered from June to September. With monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 38% in July to 83% in December, the county seat receives 2,643 hours of bright sunshine annually, with winter by far the sunniest season.
Climate data for Litang (1981−2010 normals) | |||||||||||||
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Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
Record high °C (°F) | 17.4 (63.3) |
16.3 (61.3) |
21.6 (70.9) |
21.1 (70.0) |
23.3 (73.9) |
24.4 (75.9) |
25.9 (78.6) |
22.9 (73.2) |
23.1 (73.6) |
20.5 (68.9) |
17.1 (62.8) |
15.4 (59.7) |
25.9 (78.6) |
Average high °C (°F) | 4.1 (39.4) |
5.3 (41.5) |
8.0 (46.4) |
11.1 (52.0) |
15.2 (59.4) |
17.4 (63.3) |
17.2 (63.0) |
16.7 (62.1) |
15.4 (59.7) |
12.6 (54.7) |
7.9 (46.2) |
4.6 (40.3) |
11.3 (52.3) |
Daily mean °C (°F) | −4.9 (23.2) |
−3.1 (26.4) |
0.1 (32.2) |
3.5 (38.3) |
7.9 (46.2) |
10.7 (51.3) |
11.0 (51.8) |
10.4 (50.7) |
8.7 (47.7) |
5.0 (41.0) |
−0.8 (30.6) |
−4.7 (23.5) |
3.7 (38.6) |
Average low °C (°F) | −12.4 (9.7) |
−9.9 (14.2) |
−6.0 (21.2) |
−2.4 (27.7) |
1.8 (35.2) |
5.8 (42.4) |
6.8 (44.2) |
6.3 (43.3) |
4.4 (39.9) |
−0.4 (31.3) |
−7.2 (19.0) |
−12.0 (10.4) |
−2.1 (28.2) |
Record low °C (°F) | −27.2 (−17.0) |
−21.6 (−6.9) |
−18.9 (−2.0) |
−11.3 (11.7) |
−7.5 (18.5) |
−3.7 (25.3) |
−0.6 (30.9) |
−2.5 (27.5) |
−4.0 (24.8) |
−10.5 (13.1) |
−19.7 (−3.5) |
−30.6 (−23.1) |
−30.6 (−23.1) |
Average precipitation mm (inches) | 1.4 (0.06) |
4.3 (0.17) |
13.7 (0.54) |
27.3 (1.07) |
52.6 (2.07) |
141.7 (5.58) |
190.1 (7.48) |
168.3 (6.63) |
121.4 (4.78) |
33.0 (1.30) |
7.9 (0.31) |
2.8 (0.11) |
764.5 (30.1) |
Average precipitation days (≥ 0.1 mm) | 2.1 | 4.1 | 8.0 | 11.9 | 14.2 | 20.7 | 24.6 | 22.8 | 20.1 | 9.8 | 4.4 | 2.2 | 144.9 |
Average relative humidity (%) | 40 | 43 | 49 | 54 | 55 | 67 | 74 | 76 | 73 | 62 | 51 | 44 | 57 |
Mean monthly sunshine hours | 259.7 | 231.8 | 248.4 | 228.2 | 235.1 | 186.4 | 161.9 | 168.3 | 177.7 | 233.4 | 251.0 | 261.0 | 2,642.9 |
Percent possible sunshine | 81 | 74 | 67 | 59 | 56 | 45 | 38 | 41 | 48 | 66 | 79 | 83 | 60 |
Source: China Meteorological Administration (precipitation days and sunshine 1971–2000)[11][12] |
They are killing several thousand of our freedom-loving, brave, ill-armed Khampas, with modern weapons; and distroying monasterees [sic]. The world is protesting the aggressor in Europe and W. Asia, but alas! There is no voice for Tibet.
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