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  • 21 Aug, 2019

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Mili Tibetan Autonomous County

Muli Tibetan Autonomous County (Chinese: 木里藏族自治县; pinyin: Mùlǐ Zàngzú Zìzhìxiàn; Tibetan: སྨི་ལི་བོད་རིགས་རང་སྐྱོང་རྫོང smi-li rang-skyong-rdzong; Yi: ꃆꆹꀒꋤꊨꏦꏱꅉꑤ mup li op zzup zyt jie jux dde xiep) is in the Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture in the southwest of Sichuan province, China, bordering Yunnan province to the southwest. 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 - lie to the west in Daocheng County, barely accessible by rough jeep track from Chabulang in northern Muli County.

History

Before 1580, Muli was a colony of the Naxi kingdom and dominated by the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism. After 1640, it became a stronghold of the Tibetan Buddhist Geluk school and was deeply involved in the power struggles between the Geluk and Kakyu schools as well as the Tibetans and Mongols.

Until 1950, Muli was a semi-independent theocratic kingdom ruled by a series of hereditary lama kings based at the trio of Gelug Buddhist monasteries at old Muli, Kulu and Waerdje. These lamaseries were overthrown by the new Communist government of China in the 1950s and destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. The monastery at old Muli, 120 km (75 mi) north of the county seat, once housed more than 700 monks. It was originally built in the early Qing dynasty, took 12 years to build and was completed in the 17th year of the reign of the Shunzhi Emperor, around 1600. It was modelled on important lamaseries in Tibet and is said to have contained an impressive golden statue of Maitreya over 10 metres high.

Since 1987, Muli Monastery has been partly restored and now has about eighty 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 are Kulu (now known as Kangwu), which has been partially rebuilt, and Waerdje (now Wa’erzhai) which is still in ruins.

Muli was visited by the botanist and explorer Joseph Rock in the 1920s and 1930s. He befriended the then lama king, Chote Chaba, and used the monastery as a base for exploring and plant collecting in the then unvisited regions of Mount Gongga and Yading. Joseph Rock wrote colourful accounts of his encounters with the eccentric lama ruler of Muli in National Geographic. These are said to have been the inspiration for the writer James Hilton and his novel Lost Horizon, about a remote monastery in the Himalayas.

Geography

Muli county has an area of 13,252 km (5,117 sq mi).

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

Climate

Climate data for Muli, elevation 2,427 m (7,963 ft), (1991–2020 normals)
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Mean daily maximum °C (°F) 15.3
(59.5)
17.4
(63.3)
20.2
(68.4)
23.3
(73.9)
25.4
(77.7)
25.9
(78.6)
24.8
(76.6)
24.5
(76.1)
23.2
(73.8)
21.3
(70.3)
18.1
(64.6)
15.5
(59.9)
21.2
(70.2)
Daily mean °C (°F) 7.6
(45.7)
9.9
(49.8)
12.7
(54.9)
15.6
(60.1)
18.2
(64.8)
19.4
(66.9)
18.9
(66.0)
18.6
(65.5)
17.2
(63.0)
14.6
(58.3)
10.4
(50.7)
7.6
(45.7)
14.2
(57.6)
Mean daily minimum °C (°F) 1.0
(33.8)
3.1
(37.6)
6.2
(43.2)
9.2
(48.6)
12.4
(54.3)
14.8
(58.6)
15.1
(59.2)
14.7
(58.5)
13.3
(55.9)
9.7
(49.5)
4.5
(40.1)
1.2
(34.2)
8.8
(47.8)
Average precipitation mm (inches) 3.9
(0.15)
2.6
(0.10)
8.9
(0.35)
21.6
(0.85)
68.2
(2.69)
161.6
(6.36)
201.5
(7.93)
168.1
(6.62)
112.0
(4.41)
39.0
(1.54)
9.7
(0.38)
1.3
(0.05)
798.4
(31.43)
Average precipitation days (≥ 0.1 mm) 2.0 2.1 4.3 6.9 12.9 19.6 22.0 20.8 17.5 9.8 2.8 0.7 121.4
Average snowy days 1.2 0.8 0.4 0.1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.1 0.4 3
Average relative humidity (%) 36 33 35 40 51 67 76 75 74 65 54 44 54
Mean monthly sunshine hours 227.3 207.9 228.6 214.3 203.6 154.8 130.2 142.4 132.6 184.3 206.2 224.8 2,257
Percent possible sunshine 69 65 61 55 48 37 31 35 36 52 64 70 52
Source: China Meteorological Administration

Administrative divisions

Muli County comprises 6 towns, 16 townships and 5 ethnic townships.

Name Simplified Chinese Hanyu Pinyin Tibetan Wylie Administrative division code
Towns
Qab'oi Town
(Qiaowa)
乔瓦镇 Qiáowǎ Zhèn ཆབ་འོད་གྲོང་རྡལ། chab 'od grong rdal 513422100
Tangkur Town
(Wachang)
瓦厂镇 Wǎchǎng Zhèn ཐང་ཁུར་གྲོང་རྡལ། thang khur grong rdal 513422101
Carong Town
(Chabulang)
茶布朗镇 Chábùlǎng Zhèn ཚ་རོང་གྲོང་རྡལ། tsha rong grong rdal 513422102
Yalongjiang Town 雅砻江镇 Yǎlóngjiāng Zhèn 513422103
Xolung Town
(Shuiluo, Xolo)
水洛镇 Shuǐluò Zhèn ཞོ་ལུང་གྲོང་རྡལ། zho lung grong rdal 513422104
Lêgwa Town
(Liewa, Liwa)
列瓦镇 Lièwǎ Zhèn ལེགས་བ་གྲོང་རྡལ། legs ba grong rdal 513422105
Townships
Bakü Township
(Boikü, Boke)
博科乡 Bókē Xiāng དཔའ་ཁུལ་གྲོང་། dpa' khul grong 513422201
Lingrong Township
(Ninglang)
宁朗乡 Nínglǎng Xiāng གླིང་རོང་ཞང་། gling rong zhang 513422202
Yargyai Township
(Yiji)
依吉乡 Yījí Xiāng ཡར་རྒྱས་ཞང་། yar rgyas zhang 513422203
Zhiyagtang Township
(Maoniuping)
牦牛坪乡 Máoniúpíng Xiāng འབྲི་གཡག་ཐང་ཞང་། 'bri g.yag thang zhang 513422206
Zhaixingtang Township
(Liziping)
李子坪乡 Lǐzǐpíng Xiāng འབྲས་ཤིང་ཐང་ཤང་། 'bras shing thang shang 513422209
Xiqu Township
(Xiqiu)
西秋乡 Xīqiū Xiāng ཤིས་ཆུ་ཞང་། shis chu zhang 513422213
Karri Township
(Ke'er)
克尔乡 Kè'ěr Xiāng མཁར་རི་ཞང་། mkhar ri zhang 513422214
Sagaryü Township
(Sanjueya)
三桷桠乡 Sānjuéyā Xiāng ས་དཀར་ཡུལ་ཞང་། sa dkar yul zhang 513422216
Norbu Township
(Luobo)
倮波乡 Luǒbō Xiāng ནོར་བུ་ཞང་། nor bu zhang 513422217
Karra Township
(Kala)
卡拉乡 Kǎlā Xiāng མཁར་ར་ཞང་། mkhar ra zhang 513422218
Horsog Township
(Housuo)
后所乡 Hòusuǒ Xiāng ཧོར་སོག་ཞང་། hor sog zhang 513422219
Xê'oi Township
(Shawan)
沙湾乡 Shāwān Xiāng ཤེལ་འོད་ཞང་། shel 'od zhang 513422220
Baisi Township
(Mairi)
麦日乡 Màirì Xiāng དཔལ་གཟི་ཞང་། dpal gzi zhang 513422223
Dêrrong Township
(Donglang)
东朗乡 Dōnglǎng Xiāng གཏེར་རོང་ཞང་། gter rong zhang 513422224
Tangyang Township 唐央乡 Tángyāng Xiāng ཐང་ཡངས་ཞང་། thang yangs zhang 513422225
Bawo Township 博窝乡 Bówō Xiāng དཔའ་བོ་ཞང་། dpa' bo zhang 513422226
Ethnic townships
Oyag Naxi Ethnic Township
(Eya)
俄亚纳西族乡 Éyà Nàxīzú Xiāng འོ་ཡག་འཇང་རིགས་ཞང་། 'o yag 'jang rigs zhang 513422204
Ujuur Mongol Ethnic Township
(Rinjung, Wujiao)
屋脚蒙古族乡 Wūjiǎo Ménggǔzú Xiāng རིན་འབྱུང་སོག་རིགས་ཞང་། rin 'byung sog rigs zhang 513422207
Ngagjoi Mongol Ethnic Township
(Xiangjiao)
项脚蒙古族乡 Xiàngjiǎo Ménggǔzú Xiāng སྔགས་སྤྱོད་སོག་རིགས་ཞང་། sngags spyod sog rigs zhang 513422208
Baidain Miao Ethnic Township
(Baidiao)
白碉苗族乡 Báidiāo Miáozú Xiāng དཔལ་ལྡན་མིའོ་རིགས་ཞང་། dpal ldan mi'o rigs zhang 513422215
Kêzain Miao Ethnic Township
(Guzeng)
固增苗族乡 Gùzēng Miáozú Xiāng གེ་བཙན་མྱའོ་རིགས་ཞང་། ge btsan mya'o rigs zhang 513422222

Demographics

Muli County has a population of more than 125,000. The inhabitants of Muli include many of China's minorities, predominantly Tibetan and Yi as well as Pumi and Naxi people. There are also some ethnic Mongol people who settled here after the pacification expeditions of Kublai Khan in the 11th century.

Ethnic groups in Muli, 2000 census

Nationality Population Percentage
Tibetan 40,312 32.39%
Yi 34,489 27.71%
Han 27,199 21.85%
Miao 8,371 6.73%
Mongol 8,035 6.46%
Naxi 4,317 3.47%
Buyei 988 0.79%
Zhuang 403 0.32%
Lisu 124 0.1%
Hui 91 0.07%
Bai 91 0.07%
Manchu 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, 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.

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, rhododendron, and walnut plants.

References

  1. ^ "凉山州第七次全国人口普查公报(第二号)——县(市)人口情况" (in Chinese). Government of Liangshan Prefecture. 2021-06-02.
  2. ^ 中国气象数据网 – WeatherBk Data (in Simplified Chinese). China Meteorological Administration. Retrieved 17 September 2023.
  3. ^ 中国气象数据网 (in Simplified Chinese). China Meteorological Administration. Retrieved 17 September 2023.