Jonê County

Jonê (pink) within Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (yellow) within Gansu (grey)

Jonê County (Chinese: 卓尼县; pinyin: Zhuōní Xiàn; Tibetan: Cho-ne dzong) is an administrative district in the Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Gansu Province, China. It is one of 58 counties of Gansu. It is part of the Gannan Prefecture. Its postal code is 747600. Its area is 4,954 km², and its population is over 100,000 people. It is administered from Jonê Town (Tibetan: Cho-ne Town)^[1]

Description

The county covers both banks of the middle section of the Lu-chu. The country town and adjacent Cho-ne Monastery are on the north bank. The side valleys on the southern side used to be branches of the ancient kingdom of Cho-ne.^[2]

History

"There are traditions of Tibetan soldiers left behind [after the late 10th century] at several border outposts, such as Cho-ne, where they established viable settlements, and of the remaining Tibetan conscript troops, called the Wun Mo, carving out considerable territory for themselves until they were perhaps absorbed into that amalgam of people of Tibetan stock, which came to form the Hsi Hsia Kingdom (982—1224)."^[3]

Cho-ne was part of a separate kingdom formed, according to legend, after its invasion by warriors who migrated across the mountains from Szechuan conquering the local tribes in 1404. The contemporary descendants of the Choni royal line claim that their line is Tibetan, and that their ancestors migrated from central Tibet through Sichuan.

The Yongle Emperor (May 2, 1360 – August 12, 1424) named one of these invading warriors hereditary chief, bestowing the name of "Yang" and an imperial seal upon his line. The Choni Prince (co ne rgyal po) established a palace on the north bank of the Tao River. The family holding the Yang seal continued to rule over 48 Tibetan clans in Chon-ne as a semi-independent kingdom from the early 15th century for 23 generations, until 1928, when it was placed under the control of the Lanchow government.^[4]

Among the six monasteries in the county, all of them Tibetan Geluk establishments, is the great Cho-ne Monastery.)^[5]

See also

• List of administrative divisions of Gansu

Footnotes

1. ^ Dorje (2009), p. 812.
2. ^ Dorje (2009), p. 812.
3. ^ Snellgrove & Richardson (1995), p. 111.
4. ^ Cabot (2003, pp. 157-158.
5. ^ Dorje (2009), p. 812.

References

• Cabot, Mabel H. (2003). Vanished Kingdoms: A Woman Explorer in Tibet, China & Mongolia, 1921-1925, pp. 148–157. Aperture Publishers in association with the Peabody Museum, Harvard. ISBN 978-1931788182.
• Dorje, Gyurme (2009). Footprint Tibet Handbook. Footprint Publications, Bath, England. ISBN 978 1 906098 32 2.
• China County & City Population 1999 FAQ

Coordinates: 34°35′N 103°30′E / 34.583°N 103.5°E / 34.583; 103.5