Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, also known as Aba (Tibetan: རྔ་བ་བོད་རིགས་དང་ཆང་རིགས་རང་སྐྱོང་ཁུལ་, Wylie: rnga ba bod rigs cha'ang rigs rang skyong khul; Qiang: Rrmeabba Shbea Rrmea Nyujwju Gvexueaj Legea; simplified Chinese: 阿坝藏族羌族自治州; traditional Chinese: 阿壩藏族羌族自治州), is an autonomous prefecture of northwestern Sichuan, bordering Gansu to the north and northeast and Qinghai to the northwest. Its seat is in Barkam, and it has an area of 83,201 km2 (32,124 sq mi). The population was 895,200 by 2022.[2]
The county of Wenchuan in Ngawa is the site of the epicenter of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, in which over 20,000 of its residents died and 40,000 were injured.
History and names
During the reign of Tibet's king Trisong Deutsen in the 8th century, the Gyalrong area was visited by the great translator Vairotsana.
In 1410 Je Tsongkhapa's student Tshakho Ngawang Tapa established the first Tibetan BuddhistGelug school monastery in the area, called "Gyalrong".
In contemporary history, most of Ngawa was under the 16th Administrative Prefecture of Szechwan (四川省第十六行政督察區), which was established by the Republic of China (ROC).[3]
The People's Republic of China defeated ROC troops in this area during Chinese Civil war and subsequently established a Tibetan autonomous prefecture by late 1952. It was renamed Aba Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in 1956 and Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture in 1987.[4]
On May 12, 2008, a major earthquake occurred in Wenchuan County (Tibetan: ལུང་དགུ་, Wylie: lung dgu), a county in the southeastern part of this autonomous prefecture. 20,258 people were killed, 45,079 injured, 7,696 missing in the prefecture as of June 6, 2008.[5][6]
In 2009, the town of Ngaba in Ngawa prefecture became the self-immolation capital of the world.[7] From 2009 to 2019, more than 60 of Tibet's total 156 self-immolations occurred in Ngaba.[8] By 2020, the town's entrances were barricaded and surveillance cameras installed, with some 50,000 security personnel for the town's population of 15,000.
In 2008, Aba county was stripped of its internet connections. Internet access in the prefecture remains severely restricted as of 2013.[9]
Taxi fare for Jiuzhai Huanglong Airport in Ngawa prefecture
The prefecture is served by Hongyuan Airport in the west and Jiuzhai Huanglong Airport in the east. Private taxis can be hired from these airports. Jiuzhaigou Train Station is under construction 55 km (34 mi) north-west of Jiuzhaigou County's town. The railway is to run between Chengdu and Lanzhou.
Tourism
Songpan BridgeKirti GompaAerial panorama of Waqie Talin 瓦切塔林 in Hongyuan county.Aerial perspective of the Songpan Ancient City walls and fort. October 2023.
Tourism produced 71.0% of the GDP of the prefecture in 2006.[12] There are many places of interest in the prefecture, including
Wolong National Nature Reserve in Wenchuan County, a well-known giant panda reserve where the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda was established in 1980
Kirti Gompa, a 15th-century Tibetan Buddhism monastery
^Ngawa Prefecture Government. 中国·阿坝州. www.abazhou.gov.cn (in Simplified Chinese). Archived from the original on 2017-08-03. Retrieved 2015-04-25.
^"阿坝藏族羌族自治州2022年国民经济和社会发展统计公报_阿坝藏族羌族自治州统计局" [Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture 2022 National Economic and Social Development Statistics]. 阿坝州统计局 (in Chinese). Retrieved 2024-02-05.
^截至6月6日18时阿坝州地震灾区遇难人员达20258人 (in Chinese (China)). Ngawa Prefecture People's Government. 2008-06-07. Archived from the original on 2008-06-09. Retrieved 2008-06-07.
^Beam, Christopher (2013-12-05), "Behind China's Cyber Curtain. Visiting the country's far reaches, where the government shut down the Internet", New Republic"Aba [county] was first stripped of its connection in 2008, after riots in Tibet led to unrest in this place known for its wide grasslands and Buddhist monasteries. Both mobile phone signals and the Web have been erratic ever since, coming back for months at a time only to disappear again, usually after a Tibetan monk sets him or herself on fire in protest. For example, the Internet returned last December and January and then, according to residents, disappeared again in February. With politically charged "incidents" occurring as recently as September, no one knows when—or if—the information blackout will end for good."
^基本州情 (in Chinese). Ngawa Prefecture People's Government. Archived from the original on 2017-08-03. Retrieved 2015-05-04.
^Ngawa Prefecture Government. 中国阿坝州. abazhou.gov.cn (in Simplified Chinese). Archived from the original on 2008-06-08. Retrieved 2008-05-30.
Further reading
A. Gruschke (2001) The Cultural Monuments of Tibet's Outer Provinces: Amdo - Volume 2. The Gansu and Sichuan Parts of Amdo. Bangkok: White Lotus Press ISBN974-480-049-6
Tsering Shakya (1999) The Dragon in the Land of Snows.: a history of modern Tibet since 1947, London: Pimlico, 1999, ISBN0-14-019615-3
