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] Lithang joined the Batang uprising together with Bathang in 1876, but failed, since then, Qing China started to rule this area directly.
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]
Geography
Yaks in the Ganden Thubchen Choekhorling monastery courtyard
Litang County is located in the west of Sichuan, the southwest of Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, between the Jinsha River and the Yalong River on the southeastern edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The Shaluli Mountains runs from north to south. The terrain is dominated by hill-shaped plateaus and mountain plains. The main mountain ranges are Ge'nyen Massif with an altitude of 6,204 meters, Xiaozha Mountain (肖扎山) with an altitude of 5,807 meters, Kainmêlong Mountain (mkhan me long, 克麦隆山) with an altitude of 5,780 meters and Kuergangzhong Mountain (库尔岗中山) with an altitude of 5,601 meters. The rivers in Litang County are divided into two major river systems, the Yalong River and the Jinsha River. There are 48 rivers with a drainage area of more than 100 square kilometers. Among them, 8 rivers including Wuliang River and Reyi River flow into the Yalong River, Naqu River and Lapo River. , Zhangna River three rivers into the Jinsha River.[11] 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.[12]
Litang County has Haizi Mountain National Nature Reserve, Gemu County Nature Reserve, Xiaba Zhaga Sacred Mountain Nature Reserve, Wulianghe Provincial Wetland Park, and Zaraoxi Scenic Area. The ecological protection red line area is 7510.94 square kilometers, accounting for 52.33% of the county's total area and 10.77% of the state's ecological red line area. There are China's national second-class protected vegetable oil barley spruce and long-bud fir, and China's first-class protected animals include white-lipped deer, forest musk deer, horse musk deer, leopard, snow leopard, Chinese merganser duck, golden eagle, jade belt sea eagle, bearded vulture, bar-tailed Hazel Chicken, Sichuan Pheasant. China's second-class protected animals include macaques, Asian black bears, otters, lynx, golden cats, sambar, Tibetan gazelle, goral, blue sheep, argali, grassland eagle, and Tibetan horse chicken.[11]
The soils in Litang County are mainly alpine meadow soil, dark brown soil and alpine shrub meadow soil. There are 9 types and 13 sub-types. The forest area is 18,375.73 hectares, the county's forest coverage rate is 7.4%, the standing wood volume is 51,391,343 cubic meters, the main tree species are fir and spruce, the total area of natural grassland is 12,357,700 mu, the usable area is 9,891,600 mu, and the main forage species are There are alpine pine grass, Sichuan pine grass, black flower moss grass and so on.
Climate
With an elevation of nearly 4,000 metres (13,000 ft), Litang has an alpine subarctic climate (KöppenDwc), 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 (1991–2020 normals, extremes 1971–2010)
Litang County administers 7 towns and 15 townships.[16] The seat of the county is Litang Town (officially: Gaocheng), which 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.[17]
According to China's seventh national census in 2020, Litang County has a total population of 67,293 people,[18] of which 51.56% are male and 48.44% are female, with a sex ratio of 106.42.[19] 27.8% were aged 0–14, 63.44% were aged 14–59, 8.76% were aged over 60, and 6.18% were aged over 65.[20] University education accounted for 8.603%, high school education accounted for 4.714%, junior high school education accounted for 10.05%, and primary school education accounted for 38.335% .[21]
In 2021, the resident population of Litang County is 74,740, of which the registered population is 68,202. The urbanization rate is 39.19%. Most of them are Tibetans, and there are Han, Mongolian, Hui, Naxi, Tujia, Yi, Miao and Qiang nationalities , Litang people traditionally live on herding, and the tourism industry has gradually developed since the reform and opening up.[22][23]
In 2020, the GDP of Litang County will reach 1.96275 billion yuan, the industrial added value will be 137.57 million yuan, the total investment in fixed assets of the whole society will be 1.21468 billion yuan, the total retail sales of consumer goods will be 843.62 million yuan, and the per capita disposable income of urban residents will be 39,343 yuan. , the per capita disposable income of rural residents is 13,009 yuan.[24] On February 18, 2020, the Sichuan Provincial Government approved the withdrawal of Litang County from poverty-stricken counties.[25]
^Li, Jianglin (2016). Tibet in agony : Lhasa 1959. Wilf, Susan. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. pp. Photo# 11 between pages 82 and 83. ISBN9780674088894. OCLC946579956.
^Li, Jianglin (2016) [5 October 1956]. Tibet in agony : Lhasa 1959. Translated by Wilf, Susan. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. pp. Photo# 11 (of original drawing) between pages 82 and 83. ISBN9780674088894. OCLC946579956. 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.
^Tharchin, Dorje (1956). Yul phyogs so soʾi gsar ʾgyur me loṅ (Tibet Mirror) (in Tibetan and English). Columbia University Libraries. Kalimpong, India: The Tibet Mirror Press. pp. Volume XXIII, Number 11, page 4.
^Li, Jianglin; 江月 (2010). 1959 Lasa! (in Chinese) (Chu ban ed.). Hong Kong: Xin shi ji chu ban ji chuan mei you xian gong si/ New Century Media & Consulting Co. Ltd. pp. 4th page of photos before the text. ISBN9789881943019. OCLC671634540.
^Li, Jianglin; 李江琳 (2010). 1959 Lasa! : Dalai Lama ru he chu zou (in Chinese) (Er ban ed.). Taipei City, Taiwan: Linking Publishing Company. pp. from photo gallery nested within text. ISBN9789570848090. OCLC972336063.
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