Bairi Tibetan Autonomous County

Bairi Tibetan Autonomous County (Tibetan: དཔའ་རིས་བོད་རང་སྐྱོང་རྫོང༌།), also known as Tianzhu from its Chinese name (Chinese: 天祝藏族自治县), is in the prefecture-level city of Wuwei in the central part of Gansu province, China, bordering Qinghai province to the south and west. It has an area of 7,147 km2 (2,759 sq mi) and approximately 230,000 inhabitants (2003). Its administrative seat is Rabgyai Town (Huazangsi).

Bairi County
དཔའ་རིས་རྫོང་ · 天祝县
Tianzhu
དཔའ་རིས་བོད་རང་སྐྱོང་རྫོང༌། · 天祝藏族自治县
Bairi Tibetan Autonomous County
Bairi County (red) within Wuwei City (yellow) and Gansu
Bairi County (red) within Wuwei City (yellow) and Gansu
Bairi County is located in Gansu
Bairi County
Bairi County
Location in Gansu
Bairi County is located in China
Bairi County
Bairi County
Bairi County (China)
Coordinates: 36°58′18″N 103°08′31″E / 36.9718°N 103.1419°E / 36.9718; 103.1419
CountryChina
ProvinceGansu
Prefecture-level cityWuwei
County seatRabgyai (Huazangsi)
Area
 • Total
7,149 km2 (2,760 sq mi)
Highest elevation
4,874 m (15,991 ft)
Lowest elevation
2,040 m (6,690 ft)
Population
 (2020)[1]
 • Total
151,031
 • Density21/km2 (55/sq mi)
Time zoneUTC+8 (China Standard)
Postal code
733200
Websitewww.gstianzhu.gov.cn
Bairi Tibetan Autonomous County
Chinese name
Simplified Chinese天祝藏族自治县
Traditional Chinese天祝藏族自治縣
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinTiānzhù Zàngzú Zìzhìxiàn
Alternative Chinese name
Simplified Chinese华锐
Traditional Chinese華銳
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinHuáruì
Tibetan name
Tibetanདཔའ་རིས་བོད་རང་སྐྱོང་རྫོང༌།
Transcriptions
Wyliedpa'a-ris bod-rigs rang-skyong rdzong
Tibetan PinyinBairi Poirig Ranggyong Zong

Name

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The Chinese name "Tianzhu" was named by a Tibetan lama Luo Haoxue (罗好学) in 1936, deriving from the combination of "Tiantang" (天堂寺, aka Chortentang Monastery) and "Zhugong" (祝贡寺, aka Drigung Monastery), the Chinese translation of the two largest lamaseries in the county.[2]

The Tibetan name Bairi (དཔའ་རིས།) is pronounced Bairi in Standard Tibetan, and pronounced Hwari in the local Amdo Tibetan and Huarui (华锐) in Chinese.[3]

An alternative Tibetan name is Tenzhu (ཐེན་ཀྲུའུ།), which is a transcription of the Chinese name Tianzhu.

History

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The county was established as the Tianzhu District of Yongdeng County in 1949, but became an autonomous county of Wuwei in the next year. In 1955, Tianzhu was moved under the administration of Zhangye as the first autonomous county in China.[3] Between 1958 and 1961, Gulang County was part of Tianzhu. In 1961 the county was placed under Wuwei again.[4]

Administrative divisions

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Bairi Tibetan Autonomous County is divided to 14 towns, 5 townships.[4][5]

Name Simplified Chinese Hanyu Pinyin Tibetan Wylie Administrative division code
Towns
Rabgyai Town
(Huazangsi)
华藏寺镇 Huázàngsì Zhèn རབ་རྒྱས་གྲོང་རྡལ། rab rgyas grong rdal 620623100
Zhaxilung Town
(Dachaigou)
打柴沟镇 Dǎcháigōu Zhèn བཀྲ་ཤིས་ལུང་གྲོང་རྡལ། bkra shis lung grong rdal 620623101
Tawain Town
(Anyuan)
安远镇 Ānyuǎn Zhèn ཏཱ་བན་གྲོང་རྡལ། tā ban grong rdal 620623102
Kêsangnyagkai Town
(Tanshanling)
炭山岭镇 Tànshānlǐng Zhèn ཁེས་བཟང་ཉག་གའི་གྲོང་རྡལ། khes bzang nyag gaʼi grong rdal 620623103
Pachi Town
(Haxi)
哈溪镇 Hāxī Zhèn ཕ་ཁྲི་གྲོང་རྡལ། pha khri grong rdal 620623104
Sêrzü Town
(Saishisi)
赛什斯镇 Sàishísī Zhèn སེར་རྩུད་གྲོང་རྡལ། ser rtsud grong rdal 620623105
Yarlung Town
(Shimen)
石门镇 Shímén Zhèn ཡར་ལུང་གྲོང་རྡལ། yar lung grong rdal 620623106
Daglung Town
(Songshan)
松山镇 Sōngshān Zhèn སྟག་ལུང་གྲོང་རྡལ། stag lung grong rdal 620623107
Qoidêntang Town
(Tiantang)
天堂镇 Tiāntáng Zhèn མཆོད་རྟེན་ཐང་གྲོང་རྡལ། mchod rten thang grong rdal 620623108
Torxi Town
(Duoshi)
朵什镇 Duǒshí Zhèn དོར་ཞི་གྲོང་རྡལ། dor zhi grong rdal 620623109
Xamar Town
(Xidatan)
西大滩镇 Xīdàtān Zhèn ཞྭ་དམར་གྲོང་རྡལ། zhwa dmar grong rdal 620623110
Zhaxiquglung Town
(Zhuaxixiulong)
抓喜秀龙镇 Zhuāxǐxiùlóng Zhèn བཀྲ་ཤིས་ཕྱུག་ལུང་གྲོང་རྡལ། bkra shis phyug lung grong rdal 620623111
Gyayag Town
(Dahonggou)
大红沟镇 Dàhónggōu Zhèn རྒྱ་ཡག་གྲོང་རྡལ། rgya yag grong rdal 620623112
Sabda'gyai Town
(Qilian)
祁连镇 Qílián Zhèn སྲབ་མདའ་བརྒྱད་གྲོང་རྡལ། srab mda' brgyad grong rdal 620623113
Townships
Dongpoin Township
(Dongping)
东坪乡 Dōngpíng Xiāng སྟོང་བོན་ཞང་། stong bon zhang 620623201
Sêralung Township
(Sailalong)
赛拉隆乡 Sàilālóng Xiāng སེ་ར་ལུང་ཞང་། se ra lung zhang 620623202
Gyiyangtang Township
(Dongdatan)
东大滩乡 Dōngdàtān Xiāng སྐྱིད་ཡངས་ཐང་ཞང་། skyid yangs thang zhang 620623203
Horxugkya Township
(Maozang)
毛藏乡 Máozàng Xiāng ཧོར་ཤུག་ཁྱ་ཞང་། hor shug khya zhang 620623208
Dainma Township
(Danma)
旦马乡 Dànmǎ Xiāng འདན་མ་ཞང་། 'dan ma zhang 620623210
Others
  • Tianzhu Building Material Factory (天祝建材厂)
  • Tianzhu Coal and Electricity Company (天祝煤电公司)

Geography

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The county is mountainous, being located at the tripoint of the Tibet Plateau, the Loess Plateau and the Inner Mongolia Plateau, with elevations ranging from 2040 m to 4874 m. It is divided into the watersheds of the Shiyang River and the Yellow River and crossed by the Wushao Mountain. South of the Wushao Mountain, the climate is continental and north of it, the climate is semi-arid. The land is mostly covered by grasslands and forests.[4]

Climate

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Climate data for Bairi, elevation 2,485 m (8,153 ft), (1991–2020 normals)
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Mean daily maximum °C (°F) −0.6
(30.9)
2.4
(36.3)
7.8
(46.0)
13.1
(55.6)
17.0
(62.6)
20.7
(69.3)
22.9
(73.2)
21.7
(71.1)
16.7
(62.1)
11.9
(53.4)
6.0
(42.8)
0.6
(33.1)
11.7
(53.0)
Daily mean °C (°F) −10.9
(12.4)
−7.2
(19.0)
−1.0
(30.2)
5.0
(41.0)
9.6
(49.3)
14.0
(57.2)
16.0
(60.8)
14.7
(58.5)
10.0
(50.0)
4.1
(39.4)
−3.0
(26.6)
−9.7
(14.5)
3.5
(38.2)
Mean daily minimum °C (°F) −17.6
(0.3)
−13.9
(7.0)
−7.6
(18.3)
−2.2
(28.0)
2.5
(36.5)
7.4
(45.3)
9.4
(48.9)
9.0
(48.2)
4.9
(40.8)
−1.3
(29.7)
−8.6
(16.5)
−16.1
(3.0)
−2.8
(26.9)
Average precipitation mm (inches) 2.7
(0.11)
5.1
(0.20)
6.8
(0.27)
17.5
(0.69)
43.9
(1.73)
59.5
(2.34)
64.9
(2.56)
90.1
(3.55)
62.8
(2.47)
26.2
(1.03)
7.3
(0.29)
2.2
(0.09)
389
(15.33)
Average precipitation days (≥ 0.1 mm) 3.8 5.5 5.3 7.6 11.4 13.8 13.4 15.2 17.4 9.9 5.8 4.4 113.5
Average snowy days 6.1 8.2 6.7 5.8 2.2 0 0 0 0.5 4.6 7.5 6.0 47.6
Average relative humidity (%) 53 52 48 48 53 58 65 71 76 70 64 55 59
Mean monthly sunshine hours 228.7 216.6 242.6 232.2 230.4 202.6 211.5 185.3 166.6 204.3 214.7 226.2 2,561.7
Percent possible sunshine 74 70 65 59 53 46 48 45 46 60 71 76 59
Source: China Meteorological Administration[6][7]
Climate data for Wuqiaoling, Bairi (elevation 3,045 m (9,990 ft), 1991–2020 normals)
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Mean daily maximum °C (°F) −4.9
(23.2)
−2.5
(27.5)
1.5
(34.7)
7.0
(44.6)
11.2
(52.2)
15.0
(59.0)
17.2
(63.0)
16.2
(61.2)
11.9
(53.4)
6.6
(43.9)
1.4
(34.5)
−3.2
(26.2)
6.5
(43.6)
Daily mean °C (°F) −11.3
(11.7)
−9.1
(15.6)
−4.7
(23.5)
1.2
(34.2)
5.7
(42.3)
10.0
(50.0)
12.3
(54.1)
11.1
(52.0)
6.7
(44.1)
0.9
(33.6)
−4.8
(23.4)
−9.5
(14.9)
0.7
(33.3)
Mean daily minimum °C (°F) −16.1
(3.0)
−13.9
(7.0)
−9.1
(15.6)
−3.4
(25.9)
1.0
(33.8)
5.6
(42.1)
8.0
(46.4)
7.1
(44.8)
3.0
(37.4)
−2.9
(26.8)
−9.2
(15.4)
−14.3
(6.3)
−3.7
(25.4)
Average precipitation mm (inches) 3.0
(0.12)
5.2
(0.20)
11.7
(0.46)
19.1
(0.75)
41.9
(1.65)
70.3
(2.77)
91.0
(3.58)
93.2
(3.67)
66.4
(2.61)
22.6
(0.89)
4.9
(0.19)
2.0
(0.08)
431.3
(16.97)
Average precipitation days (≥ 0.1 mm) 5.4 8.0 11.5 11.4 14.1 14.7 16.6 17.7 17.0 11.7 5.6 4.4 138.1
Average snowy days 9.2 11.3 15.7 13.8 11.2 1.4 0.1 0.4 4.4 13.0 8.9 7.9 97.3
Average relative humidity (%) 49 53 55 54 58 61 68 73 74 65 52 47 59
Mean monthly sunshine hours 232.4 221.9 239.7 235.1 235.5 211.8 213.4 193.1 176.3 218.4 237.0 236.2 2,650.8
Percent possible sunshine 75 72 64 59 53 48 48 47 48 64 79 80 61
Source: China Meteorological Administration[6][8]

Transport

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Ethnic groups in Tianzhu, 2000 census

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Nationality Population Percentage
Han 139,190 62.88%
Tibetan 66,125 29.87%
Tu 12,633 5.71%
Hui 1,986 0.9%
Mongol 961 0.43%
Manchu 213 0.1%
Dongxiang 90 0.04%
Uyghur 40 0.02%
Miao 23 0.01%
Others 86 0.04%

References

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  1. ^ "武威市第七次全国人口普查公报" (in Chinese). Government of Wuwei. 2021-05-27.
  2. ^ "天祝旅游网". Archived from the original on 2013-02-04. Retrieved 2012-01-19.
  3. ^ a b "甘肃·天祝 - 走进天祝". www.gstianzhu.gov.cn. Retrieved 2020-12-31.
  4. ^ a b c "天祝藏族自治县". 13 July 2004.
  5. ^ 2022年统计用区划代码和城乡划分代码 (in Chinese). National Bureau of Statistics of the People's Republic of China.
  6. ^ a b 中国气象数据网 – WeatherBk Data (in Simplified Chinese). China Meteorological Administration. Retrieved 24 September 2023.
  7. ^ 中国气象数据网 (in Simplified Chinese). China Meteorological Administration. Retrieved 24 September 2023.
  8. ^ 中国气象数据网 (in Simplified Chinese). China Meteorological Administration. Retrieved 24 September 2023.

Further reading

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  • A. Gruschke: The Cultural Monuments of Tibet’s Outer Provinces: Amdo - Volume 2. The Gansu and Sichuan Parts of Amdo, White Lotus Press, Bangkok 2001. 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