Muli Tibetan Autonomous County ' onMouseout='HidePop("33516")' href="/topics/Tibetan_language">Tibetan

Tibetan language

The Tibetan languages are a cluster of mutually-unintelligible Tibeto-Burman languages spoken primarily by Tibetan peoples who live across a wide area of eastern Central Asia bordering the Indian subcontinent, including the Tibetan Plateau and the northern Indian subcontinent in Baltistan, Ladakh,...

: སྨི་ལི་རང་སྐྱོང་རྫོང་ / smi-li rang-skyong-rdzong) is in the Liangshan (Cool Mountains) prefecture of Sichuan

Sichuan

' , known formerly in the West by its postal map spellings of Szechwan or Szechuan is a province in Southwest China with its capital in Chengdu...

 province in China

People's Republic of China

China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...

. It is a remote, mountainous and forested region with few roads. The highest peaks are nearly 6000 metres in height. The trio of the sacred Konkaling mountains - Shenrezig, Jambeyang and Chanadorje in Yading Natural Park

Yading

Yading is a national level reserve in Daocheng County, in the southwest of Sichuan Province, China. Unknown to the outside world until the late 1990s, it is a mountain sanctuary and major Tibetan pilgrimage site comprising three peaks sanctified by the 5th Dalai Lama...

 - lie to the west in Daocheng County, barely accessible by rough jeep track from Chabulang in northern Muli County.

Geography

Muli county has an area of 13,252 km².

The county is characterised by the canyons formed by three rivers flowing from north to south: the Shuiluo River, the Litang River, and the Yalong River

Yalong River

The Nyag Qu or Yalong River, also called Ya-lung River is an 822 mile long river in the Sichuan province of southern China. It flows into the Yangtze River along the border with Yunnan. It is a tributary of the Yangtze River...

 that carves out a huge canyon before flowing into the Yangtze River

Yangtze River

The Yangtze, Yangzi or Cháng Jiāng is the longest river in Asia, and the third-longest in the world. It flows for from the glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau in Qinghai eastward across southwest, central and eastern China before emptying into the East China Sea at Shanghai. It is also one of the...

.

Demographics

Muli county has a population of more than 125,000. The inhabitants of Muli include many of China's minorities, predominantly Tibetan

Tibetan people

The Tibetan people are an ethnic group that is native to Tibet, which is mostly in the People's Republic of China. They number 5.4 million and are the 10th largest ethnic group in the country. Significant Tibetan minorities also live in India, Nepal, and Bhutan...

 and Yi

Yi people

The Yi or Lolo people are an ethnic group in China, Vietnam, and Thailand. Numbering 8 million, they are the seventh largest of the 55 ethnic minority groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China...

 as well as Pumi

Pumi

The Pumi people are an ethnic group. They form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China....

 and Naxi

Nakhi

The Nakhi are an ethnic group inhabiting the foothills of the Himalayas in the northwestern part of Yunnan Province, as well as the southwestern part of Sichuan Province in China....

 people. There are also some ethnic Mongol people who settled here after the pacification expeditions of Kublai Khan

Kublai Khan

Kublai Khan , born Kublai and also known by the temple name Shizu , was the fifth Great Khan of the Mongol Empire from 1260 to 1294 and the founder of the Yuan Dynasty in China...

 in the 11th century.

Ethnic groups in Muli, 2000 census

Nationality	Population	Percentage
Tibetan Tibetan people The Tibetan people are an ethnic group that is native to Tibet, which is mostly in the People's Republic of China. They number 5.4 million and are the 10th largest ethnic group in the country. Significant Tibetan minorities also live in India, Nepal, and Bhutan...	40,312	32.39%
Yi Yi people The Yi or Lolo people are an ethnic group in China, Vietnam, and Thailand. Numbering 8 million, they are the seventh largest of the 55 ethnic minority groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China...	34,489	27.71%
Han Han Chinese Han Chinese are an ethnic group native to China and are the largest single ethnic group in the world.Han Chinese constitute about 92% of the population of the People's Republic of China , 98% of the population of the Republic of China , 78% of the population of Singapore, and about 20% of the...	27,199	21.85%
Miao Hmong people The Hmong , are an Asian ethnic group from the mountainous regions of China, Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand. Hmong are also one of the sub-groups of the Miao ethnicity in southern China...	8,371	6.73%
Mongol Mongols Mongols ) are a Central-East Asian ethnic group that lives mainly in the countries of Mongolia, China, and Russia. In China, ethnic Mongols can be found mainly in the central north region of China such as Inner Mongolia...	8,035	6.46%
Naxi	4,317	3.47%
Buyei Buyei The Buyei are an ethnic group living in southern mainland China. Numbering 2.5 million, they are the 11th largest of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China...	988	0.79%
Zhuang	403	0.32%
Lisu	124	0.1%
Hui Hui people The Hui people are an ethnic group in China, defined as Chinese speaking people descended from foreign Muslims. They are typically distinguished by their practice of Islam, however some also practice other religions, and many are direct descendants of Silk Road travelers.In modern People's...	91	0.07%
Bai Bai The Bai or Baip are one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. They numbered 1,858,063 as of 2000....	91	0.07%
Manchu Manchu The Manchu people or Man are an ethnic minority of China who originated in Manchuria . During their rise in the 17th century, with the help of the Ming dynasty rebels , they came to power in China and founded the Qing Dynasty, which ruled China until the Xinhai Revolution of 1911, which...	15	0.01%
Others	27	0.02%

Economy

The main resources in Muli are hydro electric power from the rivers and a wide variety of plants used in traditional Chinese medicine

Traditional Chinese medicine

Traditional Chinese Medicine refers to a broad range of medicine practices sharing common theoretical concepts which have been developed in China and are based on a tradition of more than 2,000 years, including various forms of herbal medicine, acupuncture, massage , exercise , and dietary therapy...

, such as Chinese caterpillar fungus. The remote location and low population have allowed many protected species to survive here, including the white-lipped deer and stump-tailed macaque

Stump-tailed Macaque

The stump-tailed macaque , also called the bear macaque, is a species of macaque found in Southern Asia. In India, it is found in south of the Brahmaputra river, in northeastern part of the country.Its range in India extends from Assam and Meghalaya to eastern Aruanchal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur,...

.

Muli is famous for its gold producing rivers, which are still exploited on a small, non-industrial scale. Its broad expanses of forests were also heavily logged until a logging ban was introduced in 1999. Now most of the local economy is based on agriculture and livestock. Forests include hemlock, cypress, yellow cedars, as well as spruce and fir trees.

Muli is also known for its azalea

Azalea

Azaleas are flowering shrubs comprising two of the eight subgenera of the genus Rhododendron, Pentanthera and Tsutsuji . Azaleas bloom in spring, their flowers often lasting several weeks...

, rhododendron

Rhododendron

Rhododendron is a genus of over 1 000 species of woody plants in the heath family, most with showy flowers...

, and walnut

Walnut

Juglans is a plant genus of the family Juglandaceae, the seeds of which are known as walnuts. They are deciduous trees, 10–40 meters tall , with pinnate leaves 200–900 millimetres long , with 5–25 leaflets; the shoots have chambered pith, a character shared with the wingnuts , but not the hickories...

 plants.

History

Until 1950 Muli was a semi-independent theocratic kingdom, ruled by a series of hereditary lama kings based at the trio of Yellow (Gelugpa) sect Buddhist monasteries at old Muli, Kulu and Waerdje. These lamaseries were overthrown by the new Communist rulers of China in the 1950s and destroyed during the Cultural Revolution

Cultural Revolution

The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, commonly known as the Cultural Revolution , was a socio-political movement that took place in the People's Republic of China from 1966 through 1976...

. The monastery at old Muli, 120 km north of the county seat, once housed more than 700 monks. It was originally built in early Qing Dynasty

Qing Dynasty

The Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. It was preceded by the Ming Dynasty and followed by the Republic of China....

, took 12 years to build and was completed in the 17th year of the reign of Qing Emperor Shunzhi

Shunzhi Emperor

The Shunzhi Emperor was the third emperor of the Manchu-led Qing dynasty, and the first Qing emperor to rule over China, which he did from 1644 to 1661. "Shunzhi" was the name of his reign period...

, around 1600. It was modelled on important lamaseries in Tibet

Tibet

Tibet is a plateau region in Asia, north-east of the Himalayas. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpas, Qiang, and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han and Hui people...

 and is said to have contained an impressive golden statue of Gyiwa Qamba Buddha over 10 metres high.

Since 1987 the Muli monastery has been partly restored and now has about 80 young monks in residence. It is near a modern small town called Wachang, located high up on the western edge of the Litang river valley, at about 3000 metres altitude. The other monasteries at Kulu (now known as Kangwu)and Waerdje are still in ruins.

Muli was visited by the botanist and explorer Joseph Rock

Joseph Rock

Joseph Francis Charles Rock was an Austrian-American explorer, geographer, linguist and botanist.-Life:He was born in Vienna, Austria, but emigrated to the United States in 1905 and moved to Honolulu, Hawaii in 1907, where he eventually became an authority on the flora there...

 in the 1920s and 1930s. He befriended the then lama

Lama

Lama is a title for a Tibetan teacher of the Dharma. The name is similar to the Sanskrit term guru .Historically, the term was used for venerated spiritual masters or heads of monasteries...

 king, Chote Chaba

Chote Chaba

Chote Chaba was a Tibetan lama, the 12th incarnation of the Migyur Khutughtu, and the 18th king of Muli...

, and used the monastery as a base for exploring and plant collecting in the then unvisited regions of Minya Konka and Yading

Yading

Yading is a national level reserve in Daocheng County, in the southwest of Sichuan Province, China. Unknown to the outside world until the late 1990s, it is a mountain sanctuary and major Tibetan pilgrimage site comprising three peaks sanctified by the 5th Dalai Lama...

. Joseph Rock wrote colourful accounts of his encounters with the eccentric lama ruler of Muli in the National Geographic magazine. These are said to have been the inspiration for the writer James Hilton

James Hilton

James Hilton was an English novelist who wrote several best-sellers, including Lost Horizon and Goodbye, Mr. Chips.-Biography:...

 and his novel Lost Horizon, about a remote monastery in the Himalayas.