Tongren County
Encyclopedia
Tongren County known to Tibetans as Rebkong in the region previously known as Amdo
Amdo
Amdo is one of the three traditional regions of Tibet, the other two being Ü-Tsang and Kham; it is also the birth place of the 14th Dalai Lama. Amdo encompasses a large area from the Machu River to the Drichu river . While culturally and ethnically a Tibetan area, Amdo has been administered by a...

 is the capital and second smallest administrative subdivision by area within Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture
Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture
Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture is an autonomous prefecture of Qinghai province in China. The prefecture has area of 17,921 km² and its capital is Tongren county.- Demographics :...

 in Qinghai Province, 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...

. The county has an area of 3465 square kilometers and a population of ~80,000 (2002), 75% 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...

. The economy of the county includes agriculture and aluminum mining
Mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...

.

The county has a number of Tibetan Buddhist temples, including the large and significant Longwu Temple
Longwu Temple
Longwu Temple also known as Lower Wutun Monastery is a Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Tongren, Huangnan Prefecture, Qinghai, China and is 186 km from Xining....

 of the Gelupa (Yellow Hat) sect. It is known as a center of the Tibetan thangka
Thangka
A "Thangka," also known as "Tangka", "Thanka" or "Tanka" is a Tibetan silk painting with embroidery, usually depicting a Buddhist deity, famous scene, or mandala of some sort. The thankga is not a flat creation like an oil painting or acrylic painting...

 painting
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...

 school.

In October, 2010 there were reports of large demonstrations in Tongren by Tibetan students
2010 Tibetan language protest
The 2010 Tibetan language protest was a protest in Tongren County, Qinghai, People's Republic of China by ethnic Tibetan students on October 19, 2010.-Protests:...

 who reportedly shouted the slogans, “equality of ethnic groups” and “freedom of language."

Demographics and languages

The Tibetan language
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,...

 is the lingua franca
Lingua franca
A lingua franca is a language systematically used to make communication possible between people not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both mother tongues.-Characteristics:"Lingua franca" is a functionally defined term, independent of the linguistic...

of Tongren County and the surrounding region,which is populated by Tibetans and Hui people
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...

, as well as some Han Chinese
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...

 and Mongols.

A peculiar Chinese-Bonan
Bonan language
The Bonan language is the Mongolic language of the Bonan people of China. As of 1985, it was spoken by about 8,000 people, including about 75% of the total Baonan ethnic population and many ethnic Monguor, in Gansu and Qinghai Provinces and the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture...

-Tibetan mixed language
Mixed language
A mixed language is a language that arises through the fusion of two source languages, normally in situations of thorough bilingualism, so that it is not possible to classify the resulting language as belonging to either of the language families that were its source...

, is spoken by some 2,000 people in the two villages of Upper and Lower Wutun, located on the eastern bank of the Rongwo River. As there is no special name for it, the linguists have dubbed it the Wutun language.

External links

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