Aba Prefecture 阿坝州 ·རྔ་བ་ཁུལ། · Rrmeabba Legea | |
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阿坝藏族羌族自治州 ·རྔ་བ་བོད་རིགས་ཆ་བ༹ང་རིགས་རང་སྐྱོང་ཁུལ། · Rrmeabba Shbea Rrmea Nyujwju Gvexueaj Legea Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture | |
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 Ngawa-Qiang Autonomous Prefecture (top centre) in Sichuan | |
| Coordinates (Ngawa Prefecture government):31°54′N102°13′E / 31.90°N 102.22°E /31.90; 102.22 | |
| Country | China |
| Province | Sichuan |
| Prefecture seat | Barkam (Barkam Town) |
| Government | |
| • Type | Autonomous prefecture |
| • CCP Secretary | Xu Zhivin |
| • Congress Chairman | Luo Zhenhua |
| • Governor | Yang Kening |
| • CPPCC Chairman | Nyima Mu |
| Area | |
• Total | 83,201 km2 (32,124 sq mi) |
| Population (2022) | |
• Total | 895,200 |
| • Density | 10.76/km2 (27.87/sq mi) |
| • Major Ethnic Groups | Tibetan−60.2% Han−18.0% Qiang- 18.5% Hui−3.1% |
| GDP[1] | |
| • Total | CN¥ 26.5 billion US$ 4.3 billion |
| • Per capita | CN¥ 28,647 US$ 4,599 |
| Time zone | UTC+08:00 (China Standard) |
| Area code | 0837 |
| ISO 3166 code | CN-SC-32 |
| License Plate Prefix | 川U |
| Website | Aba China |
| Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture | |||||||
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| Chinese name | |||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 阿坝藏族羌族自治州 | ||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 阿壩藏族羌族自治州 | ||||||
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| Abbreviated as "Aba Prefecture" | |||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 阿坝州 | ||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 阿壩州 | ||||||
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| Tibetan name | |||||||
| Tibetan | རྔ་བ་བོད་རིགས་དང་ཆང་རིགས་རང་སྐྱོང་ཁུལ། | ||||||
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Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, also known asAba (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 anautonomous prefecture of northwesternSichuan, borderingGansu to the north and northeast andQinghai to the northwest. Its seat is inBarkam, and it has an area of 83,201 km2 (32,124 sq mi). The population was 895,200 by 2022.[2]
The county ofWenchuan in Ngawa is the site of the epicenter of the2008 Sichuan earthquake, in which over 20,000 of its residents died and 40,000 were injured.
During the reign ofTibet's kingTrisong Detsen in the 8th century, the Gyalrong area was visited by the great translatorVairotsana.
In 1410Je Tsongkhapa's student Tshakho Ngawang Tapa established the firstTibetan 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 theRepublic 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, amajor earthquake occurred inWenchuan 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]
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Most of the prefecture lies in the Tibetan cultural and historical region ofAmdo. The west, and part ofKardze, is also known as Gyalrong.Gyalrong people speak aQiangic language known asGyalrong language. The source of theMin River and itstributaryDadu River are to be found in Ngawa.
As of 2013[update], the prefecture's population was 919,987 inhabitants at a density of 10.91 per km2:[7]At the end of 2024, the resident population of the whole state was 828,000, including 372,000 in urban areas and 456,000 in rural areas.[8]
| Ethnic group | Population | Proportion of total |
|---|---|---|
| Tibetan | 489,747 | 57.3% |
| Han | 220,353 | 20.6% |
| Qiang | 157,905 | 18.6% |
| Hui | 26,353 | 3.3% |
| Yi | 685 | 0.08% |
| Manchu | 373 | 0.04% |
| Miao | 266 | 0.03% |
| Mongols | 202 | 0.02% |
| Tujia | 182 | 0.02% |
| Bai | 101 | 0.01% |
| Zhuang | 95 | 0.01% |
| others | 278 | 0.03% |
Major languages spoken in Aba Prefecture includeTibetan,Mandarin Chinese and many vernaculars of theQiangic languages which vary from county to county:
In April 2020, classroom instruction was switched from Tibetan to Mandarin Chinese in Ngaba.[9]
The region is composed of onecounty-level city and twelvecounties:
| Map | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | Name | Hanzi | Pinyin | Tibetan | Wylie | Qiang | Population (2010 Census) | Area (km2) | Density (/km2) |
| 1 | Barkam City (Ma'erkang City) | 马尔康市 | Mǎ'ěrkāng Shì | འབར་ཁམས་གྲོང་ཁྱེར། | 'bar khams rdzong | Muerkvua shi | 58,437 | 6,639 | 8.80 |
| 2 | Wenchuan County | 汶川县 | Wènchuān Xiàn | ལུང་དགུ་རྫོང་། /ཁྲི་ཚང་རྫོང་། | lung dgu rdzong / khri tshang rdzong | 100,771 | 4,083 | 24.68 | |
| 3 | Li County | 理县 | Lǐ Xiàn | བཀྲ་ཤིས་གླིང་། | bkra shis gling | pauɕuq | 46,556 | 4,318 | 10.78 |
| 4 | Mao County | 茂县 | Mào Xiàn | མའོ་ཝུན། | ma'o wun | ʂqini | 104,829 | 4,075 | 25.72 |
| 5 | Songpan County | 松潘县 | Sōngpān Xiàn | ཟུང་ཆུ་རྫོང་། | zung chu rdzong | 72,309 | 8,486 | 8.52 | |
| 6 | Jiuzhaigou County | 九寨沟县 | Jiǔzhàigōu Xiàn | གཟི་རྩ་སྡེ་དགུ་རྫོང་། | gzi rtsa sde dgu rdzong | 81,394 | 5,286 | 15.39 | |
| 7 | Jinchuan County | 金川县 | Jīnchuān Xiàn | ཆུ་ཆེན་རྫོང་། | chu chen rdzong | 65,976 | 5,524 | 11.94 | |
| 8 | Xiaojin County | 小金县 | Xiǎojīn Xiàn | བཙན་ལྷ་རྫོང་། | btsan lha rdzong | 77,731 | 5,571 | 13.95 | |
| 9 | Heishui County | 黑水县 | Hēishuǐ Xiàn | ཁྲོ་ཆུ་རྫོང་། | khro chu rdzong | khǝtʂǝp | 60,704 | 4,154 | 14.61 |
| 10 | Zamtang County (Rangtang County) | 壤塘县 | Rǎngtáng Xiàn | འཛམ་ཐང་རྫོང་། | 'dzam thang rdzong | 39,173 | 6,836 | 5.73 | |
| 11 | Ngawa County (Aba County) | 阿坝县 | Ābà Xiàn | རྔ་བ་རྫོང་། | rnga ba rdzong | Ggabba | 72,391 | 10,435 | 6.93 |
| 12 | Zoigê County (Ruo'ergai County) | 若尔盖县 | Ruò'ěrgài Xiàn | མཛོད་དགེ་རྫོང་། | mdzod dge rdzong | 74,619 | 10,437 | 7.14 | |
| 13 | Hongyuan County | 红原县 | Hóngyuán Xiàn | རྐ་ཁོག་རྫོང་། /ཁྱུང་མཆུ་རྫོང་། | rka khog rdzong / khyung mchu rdzong | 43,818 | 8,398 | 5.21 | |
Though situated withinWenchuan County,Wolong National Nature Reserve andWolong Special Administrative Region are administered separately by theForestry Department of Sichuan.
The prefecture is served byHongyuan Airport in the west andJiuzhai 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 ofJiuzhaigou County's town. The railway is to run betweenChengdu andLanzhou.
Tourism produced 71.0% of the GDP of the prefecture in 2006.[10] There are many places of interest in the prefecture, including
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