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TheHor States (Tibetan:ཧོར་དཔོན་ཁག་ལྔ།,Wylie:hor dpon khag lnga;Chinese:五霍爾;lit. 'Five Hors'), also known as theHorpa States (Chinese:霍爾巴小邦), were a group of fiveprincipalities located in theTibetan region ofKham that existed from the 14th century to the mid-1900s.
Today, the historical territory of the Hor States comprisesGarzê County,Luhuo County, and part ofDawu County.
The name "Hor" is usually considered to be Turkic; because the Hor states were Tibetic in culture, their population is thought to be Turks that were influenced by Tibetic culture.[1]
The Hor States were located in the region of Trehor (named after one of the states) or Horkhok (Tibetan:ཧོར་ཁོག,Wylie:hor khog) in northern Kham on the upper portion of theYalong River. The traditional five states were:
Each state governed families rather than distinct territory; as a result, there were no clear borders and some land was owned by multiple principalities.
The Hor States originated when a prince of theYuan Dynasty entered the region and had a relationship with a daughter of a chieftain; however, when it resulted in a child, he had departed. He decreed that the offspring's status depended on its gender; if it turned out to be male, then his son should be made ruler, if it turned out to be female, then no special accommodations should be made; the child turned out to be male; the ruling dynasties of the principalities claimed him as their ancestor. The prince's companion, lama Ga Anyen Dampa (Wylie:sga a gnyan dam pa), stayed a while longer, founding a prominent local temple. The Hor states next appear in the historical record in the 1600s; when theGelugpa sect built monasteries (thirteen in local accounts) across the Hor states; this move connected them to theGanden Podrang elite and amplified the region's prosperity. TheQing Dynasty bestowed ranks on the rulers of the Hor states.[2] The Hor States, unlike many of Tibet's traditional states were not brought to an end by increasing centralisation from the Chinese government; but instead survived the end of Qing rule and became governed from Lhasa. However, a rebellion in the early 1930s made the Hor States practically independent; this continued until Communist rule.[3]
