Sêrtar County 色达县 ·གསེར་ཐར་རྫོང། Serthar, Sêrda, Seda | |
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.png) Location of Sêrtar County (red) within Garzê Prefecture (yellow) and Sichuan | |
  Sêrtar Location of the seat in Sichuan Show map of Sichuan Sêrtar Sêrtar (China) Show map of China | |
| Coordinates:32°16′05″N100°19′58″E / 32.2681°N 100.3327°E /32.2681; 100.3327 | |
| Country | China |
| Province | Sichuan |
| Autonomous prefecture | Garzê |
| County seat | Sêrkog (Seke) |
| Area | |
• Total | 9,338.98 km2 (3,605.80 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 4,127 m (13,540 ft) |
| Population (2020)[1] | |
• Total | 64,681 |
| • Density | 6.9259/km2 (17.938/sq mi) |
| • Majornationalities | TibetanHanSalarHui |
| Time zone | UTC+8 (China Standard) |
| Postal code | 626600 |
| Area code | 0836 |
| Website | www |
| Sêrtar County | |||||||
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| Chinese name | |||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 色达县 | ||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 色達縣 | ||||||
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| Tibetan name | |||||||
| Tibetan | གསེར་ཐར་རྫོང། orགསེར་རྟ་རྫོང་། | ||||||
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Sêrtar County orSerthar County (Tibetan:གསེར་ཐར་རྫོང།;Chinese:色达县) is a county in the northwest ofSichuan Province, China, borderingQinghai province to the north. It is one of the 18 counties under the administration of theGarzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, covering some 9,340 square kilometres or 3,606 square miles. Sêrtar, which means "golden freedom" inTibetan, lies in the southeast of theTibetan Plateau and in the historical region ofKham. The vast majority of the population isTibetan, followed byHan Chinese.
Sêrtar comprises 17 towns and 66 villages. It is home to theLarung Gar Buddhist Institute, the largestTibetan Buddhist institute in the world. The institute, which was founded bylamaJigme Phuntsok in 1980 and started off with just a few monks, now houses tens of thousands of monks and pilgrims from around the world,[2] which constitute the vast majority of the Sêrtar population. Most monks spend six to 13 years completing their training. The institute, divided into two main segments and spread over just a few square kilometres, is located in a valley and around 15 kilometres from the town of Sêrtar. A permit is occasionally required for non-Chinese nationals to enter the institute.
Sêrtar is remotely located and requires more than half a day's driving if travelling fromChengdu viaMaerkang. It is also possible to travel fromXining, the capital ofQinghai. Sêrtar is at an altitude of around 4,100 metres or 13,500 feet above sea level. Temperatures range between a maximum of 30 °C or 86 °F in the summer and a minimum of −30 °C or −22 °F in the winter.
Sêrtar is one of the places in Sichuan that witnesses occasional acts ofself-immolation, usually carried out by Tibetans. For instance, in February 2012, three herders set themselves on fire, purportedly in protest.[3] On 26 November 2012, a monk allegedly self-immolated in front of the golden horse statue in Larung Gar.[4] The supposedly political motivation behind these acts, however, has always been disputed by the Chinese government.[5]
As many of the houses in Larung Gar are made of wood, they present a constant fire hazard. On the evening of 10 January 2014, a fire broke out in Larung Gar, burning down more than a dozen structures and requiring 450 rescue workers to respond to the scene; however, there were no serious casualties.[6]
Sêrtar County is divided into 5towns and 11townships.
| Name | Simplified Chinese | Hanyu Pinyin | Tibetan | Wylie | Administrative division code | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Towns | ||||||
| Sêrkog Town (Seke) | 色柯镇 | Sèkē Zhèn | གསེར་ཁོག་གྲོང་རྡལ། | gser khog grong rdal | 513333100 | |
| Bomda Town (Wungda, Wengda) | 翁达镇 | Wēngdá Zhèn | སྦོ་མདའ་གྲོང་རྡལ། | sbo mda' grong rdal | 513333101 | |
| Nubsur Town (Larung, Luoruo) | 洛若镇 | Luòruò Zhèn | གནུབས་ཟུར་གྲོང་རྡལ། | gnubs zur grong rdal | 513333102 | |
| Nyidoi Town (Niduo) | 泥朵镇 | Níduǒ Zhèn | སྙི་སྟོད་གྲོང་རྡལ། | snyi stod grong rdal | 513333103 | |
| Gyaxoi Town (Jiaxue) | 甲学镇 | Jiǎxué Zhèn | རྒྱ་ཤོད་གྲོང་བརྡལ། | rgya shod grong brdal | 513333104 | |
| Townships | ||||||
| Kêgor Township (Keguo) | 克果乡 | Kèguǒ Xiāng | ཁེས་སྐོར་ཡུལ་ཚོ། | khes skor yul tsho | 513333201 | |
| Ragzham Township (Razham, Ranchong) | 然充乡 | Ránchōng Xiāng | རགས་བཀྲམ་ཡུལ་ཚོ། | rags bkram yul tsho | 513333202 | |
| Kainlêb Township (Karlêb, Kangle) | 康勒乡 | Kānglè Xiāng | མཁན་ལེབ་ཡུལ་ཚོ། | mkhan leb yul tsho | 513333203 | |
| Darcang Township (Dazhang) | 大章乡 | Dàzhāng Xiāng | བརྡར་ཚང་ཡུལ་ཚོ། | brdar tshang yul tsho | 513333204 | |
| Dagzê Township (Daze) | 大则乡 | Dàzé Xiāng | སྟག་རྩེ་ཡུལ་ཚོ། | stag rtse yul tsho | 513333205 | |
| Yarlung Township (Yalong) | 亚龙乡 | Yàlóng Xiāng | ཡར་ལུང་ཡུལ་ཚོ། | yar lung yul tsho | 513333206 | |
| Qogcang Township (Tazi) | 塔子乡 | Tǎzǐ Xiāng | མཆོག་ཚང་ཡུལ་ཚོ། | mchog tshang yul tsho | 513333207 | |
| Nyainlung Township (Nianlong) | 年龙乡 | Niánlóng Xiāng | སྙན་ལུང་ཡུལ་ཚོ། | snyan lung yul tsho | 513333208 | |
| Horxü Township (Huoxi) | 霍西乡 | Huòxī Xiāng | ཧོར་ཤུལ་ཡུལ་ཚོ། | hor shul yul tsho | 513333210 | |
| Xêchub Township (Xuri) | 旭日乡 | Xùrì Xiāng | ཤེལ་གྲུབ་ཡུལ་ཚོ། | shel grub yul tsho | 513333211 | |
| Yanggo Township (Yangge) | 杨各乡 | Yánggè Xiāng | ཡང་འོ་ཡུལ་ཚོ། | yang 'o yul tsho | 513333212 | |
Sêrtar County has a dry-wintersubalpine climate (KöppenDwc), closely bordering upon analpine climate (ETH). Summers are mild and rainy, whereas winters are frigid, dry, and clear with largediurnal temperature ranges.
| Climate data for Sêrtar, elevation 3,894 m (12,776 ft), (1991–2020 normals, extremes 1981–present) | |||||||||||||
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| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 15.5 (59.9) | 14.1 (57.4) | 17.4 (63.3) | 20.5 (68.9) | 22.5 (72.5) | 23.6 (74.5) | 26.2 (79.2) | 23.7 (74.7) | 23.0 (73.4) | 20.9 (69.6) | 16.7 (62.1) | 13.1 (55.6) | 26.2 (79.2) |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 1.5 (34.7) | 3.5 (38.3) | 6.2 (43.2) | 9.7 (49.5) | 13.4 (56.1) | 15.9 (60.6) | 17.5 (63.5) | 17.3 (63.1) | 15.2 (59.4) | 10.2 (50.4) | 5.6 (42.1) | 2.5 (36.5) | 9.9 (49.8) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | −9.9 (14.2) | −7.0 (19.4) | −3.0 (26.6) | 1.6 (34.9) | 5.6 (42.1) | 9.1 (48.4) | 10.6 (51.1) | 9.9 (49.8) | 7.3 (45.1) | 1.9 (35.4) | −4.5 (23.9) | −9.0 (15.8) | 1.1 (33.9) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | −18.8 (−1.8) | −15.4 (4.3) | −10.2 (13.6) | −4.8 (23.4) | −0.5 (31.1) | 3.9 (39.0) | 5.2 (41.4) | 4.3 (39.7) | 1.9 (35.4) | −3.5 (25.7) | −11.4 (11.5) | −17.3 (0.9) | −5.6 (22.0) |
| Record low °C (°F) | −32.2 (−26.0) | −28.1 (−18.6) | −23.4 (−10.1) | −15.9 (3.4) | −9.7 (14.5) | −6.3 (20.7) | −3.3 (26.1) | −6.5 (20.3) | −8.3 (17.1) | −15.7 (3.7) | −28.9 (−20.0) | −32.0 (−25.6) | −32.2 (−26.0) |
| Averageprecipitation mm (inches) | 4.1 (0.16) | 7.3 (0.29) | 18.2 (0.72) | 31.2 (1.23) | 69.8 (2.75) | 145.2 (5.72) | 139.3 (5.48) | 114.1 (4.49) | 107.1 (4.22) | 45.0 (1.77) | 7.5 (0.30) | 3.4 (0.13) | 692.2 (27.26) |
| Average precipitation days(≥ 0.1 mm) | 4.2 | 6.5 | 11.1 | 13.9 | 19.1 | 23.4 | 21.2 | 19.2 | 19.8 | 14.9 | 5.0 | 3.6 | 161.9 |
| Average snowy days | 6.7 | 9.9 | 15.1 | 17.8 | 12.6 | 1.9 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 2.8 | 15.1 | 8.1 | 5.3 | 95.8 |
| Averagerelative humidity (%) | 51 | 53 | 57 | 62 | 66 | 72 | 74 | 75 | 76 | 72 | 62 | 54 | 65 |
| Mean monthlysunshine hours | 208.2 | 179.9 | 194.7 | 203.8 | 202.7 | 177.5 | 197.8 | 197.3 | 179.5 | 180.0 | 210.0 | 221.0 | 2,352.4 |
| Percentagepossible sunshine | 65 | 57 | 52 | 52 | 47 | 42 | 46 | 48 | 49 | 52 | 67 | 71 | 54 |
| Source:China Meteorological Administration[7][8] | |||||||||||||
Media related toSêrtar County at Wikimedia Commons| International | |
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| National | |
