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.

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

• Winter storms of 2009–2010 in East Asia
• Tibet
• Himalayas

Further reading

• Bellezza, John Vincent: Zhang Zhung. Foundations of Civilization in Tibet. A Historical and Ethnoarchaeological Study of the Monuments, Rock Art, Texts, and Oral Tradition of the Ancient Tibetan Upland. Denkschriften der phil.-hist. Klasse 368. Beitraege zur Kultur- und Geistesgeschichte Asiens 61, Verlag der Oesterreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien 2008.
• Zeisler, Bettina. (2010). "East of the Moon and West of the Sun? Approaches to a Land with Many Names, North of Ancient India and South of Khotan." In: The Tibet Journal, Special issue. Autumn 2009 vol XXXIV n. 3-Summer 2010 vol XXXV n. 2. "The Earth Ox Papers", edited by Roberto Vitali, pp. 371–463.

External links

• Ngari
• Ngari (Tibet Online)