Purang County སྤུ་ཧྲེང་རྫོང ·普兰县 Burang | |
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| Burang County | |
 Gurla Mandhata 7,694 metres (25,243 ft) | |
.png) Location of Purang County within Tibet | |
  Purang Location of the seat in the Tibet AR Show map of Ngari Purang Purang (Tibet) Show map of Tibet Purang Purang (China) Show map of China | |
| Coordinates (Purang County government):30°17′25″N81°10′38″E / 30.2904°N 81.1771°E /30.2904; 81.1771 | |
| Country | China |
| Autonomous region | Tibet |
| Prefecture | Ngari |
| County seat | Purang |
| Area | |
• Total | 12,539 km2 (4,841 sq mi) |
| Population (2020)[2] | |
• Total | 12,242 |
| • Density | 0.97631/km2 (2.5286/sq mi) |
| Time zone | UTC+8 (China Standard) |
| Postal code | 859500 |
| Website | pl |
| Purang County | |||||||||||
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| Chinese name | |||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 普兰县 | ||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 普蘭縣 | ||||||||||
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| Tibetan name | |||||||||||
| Tibetan | སྤུ་ཧྲེང་རྫོང | ||||||||||
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Purang County[3][4] orBurang County[5](Tibetan:སྤུ་ཧྲེང་རྫོང;Chinese:普兰县)[6] is an administrative division ofNgariPrefecture in theTibet Autonomous Region (TAR) of China. The county seat isPurang Town, known asTaklakot inNepali.[7] The county covers an area of 12,539 square kilometres (4,841 sq mi), and has a population of 9,657 as of 2010.[1][8]
Purang County has TAR's south-western border withNepal'sSudurpashchim andKarnaliprovince,Darchula,Bajhang andHumlaDistrict.[citation needed] Further west,India'sUttarakhandState,Pithoragarh district andChamoli district borders.[citation needed]Buddhist,Hindu andJainpilgrims going toLake Manasarovar andMount Kailash enter from Nepal viaSimikot,[9] and from India viaDharchula.[10]
The county is bounded by other counties in theNgari Prefecture, includingZanda to the west,Gar to the northwest andGê'gyai to the north.[1] To the east isZhongba County ofShigatse Prefecture.[1]
The county covers an area of 12,539 square kilometres (4,841 sq mi), and has a population of some 9,058 people as of 2010.[1][8] The county seat, located in theJirang Neighborhood Committee,[1] is located only 20 kilometres (12 mi) from Nepalese territory, and 450 kilometres (280 mi) north-west ofKathmandu.[citation needed] It is an important Chinesecustoms point between Tibet, Nepal and India.[citation needed] Much of the county consists of river valleys of mountains and lakes such as Kangrinboqê (also known asMount Kailash), The Naimonany PeakGunrla and Lake Maponen YamcoLake Manasarowar.[citation needed] TheKarnali River fed byMabja Zangbo is also a prominent geographical feature of the landscape.[citation needed]Wildlife commonly seen in the far south-western Tibetan county are wilddonkeys,wild yaks, yellowgoats,antelope, rockgoat,lynxes,foxes,leopards andmarmots.[citation needed]
Purang County has acool semi-arid climate (KöppenBSk), with pleasant to warm summers and freezing winters. The annual average temperature in the county is 4.0 °C (39.2 °F), and annual precipitation averages 147 mm (5.8 in). Temperatures are hottest on average in July, when the daily mean is 14.7 °C (58.5 °F), and coldest in January when the average is −7.4 °C (18.7 °F).[1]
| Climate data for Burang County, elevation 3,900 m (12,800 ft), (1991–2020 normals, extremes 1981–2010) | |||||||||||||
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| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 11.3 (52.3) | 13.7 (56.7) | 15.8 (60.4) | 18.8 (65.8) | 23.5 (74.3) | 27.0 (80.6) | 28.4 (83.1) | 26.7 (80.1) | 25.8 (78.4) | 20.3 (68.5) | 16.7 (62.1) | 12.9 (55.2) | 28.4 (83.1) |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 0.2 (32.4) | 1.3 (34.3) | 5.4 (41.7) | 10.6 (51.1) | 15.2 (59.4) | 19.4 (66.9) | 21.5 (70.7) | 20.8 (69.4) | 18.3 (64.9) | 12.6 (54.7) | 8.3 (46.9) | 4.5 (40.1) | 11.5 (52.7) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | −7.4 (18.7) | −6.0 (21.2) | −1.9 (28.6) | 3.4 (38.1) | 7.9 (46.2) | 12.4 (54.3) | 14.7 (58.5) | 14.1 (57.4) | 11.2 (52.2) | 4.5 (40.1) | −0.5 (31.1) | −4.4 (24.1) | 4.0 (39.2) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | −13.8 (7.2) | −12.4 (9.7) | −8.3 (17.1) | −2.7 (27.1) | 1.7 (35.1) | 6.5 (43.7) | 9.3 (48.7) | 8.9 (48.0) | 5.3 (41.5) | −2.3 (27.9) | −7.5 (18.5) | −11.3 (11.7) | −2.2 (28.0) |
| Record low °C (°F) | −28.4 (−19.1) | −25.6 (−14.1) | −24.0 (−11.2) | −15.6 (3.9) | −9.7 (14.5) | −1.9 (28.6) | 0.2 (32.4) | 1.6 (34.9) | −3.2 (26.2) | −9.4 (15.1) | −17.2 (1.0) | −29.4 (−20.9) | −29.4 (−20.9) |
| Averageprecipitation mm (inches) | 12.6 (0.50) | 16.4 (0.65) | 19.4 (0.76) | 10.4 (0.41) | 6.8 (0.27) | 11.7 (0.46) | 18.5 (0.73) | 25.6 (1.01) | 11.3 (0.44) | 7.7 (0.30) | 3.8 (0.15) | 3.1 (0.12) | 147.3 (5.8) |
| Average precipitation days(≥ 0.1 mm) | 4.1 | 4.2 | 5.7 | 4.4 | 3.8 | 3.7 | 7.3 | 9.3 | 3.8 | 1.4 | 0.8 | 0.9 | 49.4 |
| Average snowy days | 6.3 | 6.4 | 8.5 | 8.1 | 4.5 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0 | 0.3 | 1.8 | 1.7 | 2.1 | 40.1 |
| Averagerelative humidity (%) | 41 | 45 | 46 | 45 | 45 | 50 | 58 | 60 | 53 | 42 | 34 | 31 | 46 |
| Mean monthlysunshine hours | 223.3 | 216.9 | 270.9 | 284.1 | 311.4 | 294.3 | 265.7 | 256.8 | 264.9 | 287.7 | 258.9 | 248.7 | 3,183.6 |
| Percentagepossible sunshine | 69 | 68 | 72 | 73 | 73 | 70 | 62 | 64 | 73 | 83 | 82 | 79 | 72 |
| Source:China Meteorological Administration[11][12] | |||||||||||||
The county is divided into 1town and 2townships.[1] The county government is seated in the Gyitang Residential Community (སྐྱིད་ཐང་སྡེ་ཁུལ་གྲོང་ལྷན།,吉让社区居委会), Purang Town.[1]
| Name | Chinese | Hanyu Pinyin | Tibetan | Wylie |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Town | ||||
| Purang Town | 普兰镇 | Pǔlán zhèn | སྤུ་ཧྲེང་གྲོང་རྡལ། | spu hreng grong rdal |
| Townships | ||||
| Baga Township (Parga) | 巴嘎乡 | Bāgā xiāng | བར་ག་ཤང་། | bar ga shang |
| Hor Township | 霍尔乡 | Huò'ěr xiāng | ཧོར་ཤང་། | hor shang |
Some historians believe that Tegla kar (Lying Tiger fort) nearPurang was built during theZhangzhung dynasty which was conquered by the Tibetan KingSongtsen Gampo in the early 7th century CE.[citation needed] It became the main fort of the Purang Kingdom, in the 10th century under King Kori, one of the two sons of Tashi Gon, who was king of theGuge Kingdom.[citation needed] The Guge and Purang kingdoms were separated during the late 11th century, when King Logtsha Tsensong founded an independent realm.[citation needed] In about 1330 the 13th King Sonam De took over the importantKhasa Kingdom in westernNepal on the extinction of the local dynasty.[citation needed] The dynasty of Purang kings died out shortly before 1376.[citation needed] The territory was subsequently dominated in turns by the neighbouring kingdoms Guge andMustang. region.[13] region. DuringDogra-Tibetan War,General Zorawar Singh had captured Purang andZanda County, in order to create a land border with theKingdom of Nepal.
Ali Sher Khan Anchan the most powerful king, fifteenth in the kings of the Maqpon Dynasty of Baltistan, conquered Ladakh and Western Tibet up to Purang in the east and Gilgit and Chitral in the west during his reign (1590–1625 AD).
In 2010, the county reported aGDP of 140 millionRenminbi, fiscal revenue of 4.27 million Renminbi, and retail sales totaling 26.97 million Renminbi.[14]
Purang is an importantbarley-growing region and traditionally barley and salt from thesalt lakes to the north ofTaklakot made up the bulk of the trade to the south, whilerice and a wide range of luxuries were traded back into Tibet from Nepal.[citation needed] The local villagers (known asPurangpa) carried the produce across the ranges into Nepal oncaravans ofsheep and goats during the summer and autumn.[15] Sheep and goats are fitted with double packs which can carry up to 30 kg (70 lb) of barley or salt on the 3 week journey to theterai or low-lands of Nepal.[16] In winter and early spring the region is often in total isolation, cut off by heavy snow falls.[citation needed]
China National Highway 219 passes through the county.[1] The county is also served byNgari Burang Airport which opened in December 2023.
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| Towns and villages | ||
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