Zanda County or Tsamda County (Tibetan: རྩ་མདའ་རྫོང, Chinese: 札达县) is a county in the Ngari Prefecture to the extreme west of the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. Its seat of power is at Tholing, the former capital of the Guge kingdom.

Zanda County
札达县རྩ་མདའ་རྫོང་།
Tsamda
Landscape of Zanda, viewed from Tsaparang.
Landscape of Zanda, viewed from Tsaparang.
Location of Zanda County within Tibet Autonomous Region
Location of Zanda County within Tibet Autonomous Region
Zanda is located in Ngari
Zanda
Zanda
Location of the seat in the Tibet AR
Zanda is located in Tibet
Zanda
Zanda
Zanda (Tibet)
Zanda is located in China
Zanda
Zanda
Zanda (China)
Coordinates (Zanda County government): 31°29′03″N 79°41′11″E / 31.48417°N 79.68639°E / 31.48417; 79.68639
CountryChina
Autonomous regionTibet
PrefectureNgari
County seatTholing
Area
 • Total
24,601.59 km2 (9,498.73 sq mi)
Population
 (2020)[1]
 • Total
8,454
 • Density0.34/km2 (0.89/sq mi)
Time zoneUTC+8 (China Standard)
Websitezd.al.gov.cn
Zanda County
Chinese name
Simplified Chinese札达县
Traditional Chinese札達縣
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinZhádá Xiàn
Tibetan name
Tibetanརྩ་མདའ་རྫོང་།
Transcriptions
Wyliertsa mda' rdzong
THLtsa da dzong
Tibetan PinyinZanda Zong

Zanda is said to mean “a place where there is grass downstream”,[2][unreliable source?] an allusion to the grassy river bed of the Sutlej river that flows through the county. Ancient Zanda horse (Hipparion zandaense) skeletons have been found in Zanda County's Sutlej basin.[3]

Zanda County is bounded by India's Himachal Pradesh state to the west, Uttarakhand State to the south, Ladakh to the northwest, Gar County to the northeast and Burang County to the southeast.

Administrative divisions

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Zanda county is divided into 1 town and 4 townships:

Name Chinese Hanyu Pinyin Tibetan Wylie
Town
Thoding Town
(Tholing)
托林镇 Tuōlín zhèn མཐོ་ལྡིང་གྲོང་རྡལ། mtho lding grong rdal
Townships
Dzarong Township 萨让乡 Sàràng xiāng རྫ་རོང་ཤང་། rdza rong shang
Danbab Township
(Daba)
达巴乡 Dábā xiāng མདའ་འབབ་ཤང་། mda' 'bab shang
Diyag Township 底雅乡 Dǐyǎ xiāng ཏི་ཡག་ཤང་། ti yag shang
Qangzê Township 香孜乡 Xiāngzī xiāng བྱང་རྩེ་ཤང་། byang rtse shang
Qusum Township 曲松乡 Qǔsōng xiāng ཆུ་གསུམ་ཤང་། chu gsum shang
Tsosib Sumkyil Township
(Churup Sumkhel)
楚鲁松杰乡 Chǔlǔsōngjié xiāng ཚོ་སྲིབ་གསུམ་དཀྱིལ་ཤང་། tshe srib gsum dkyil shang

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "阿里地区第七次全国人口普查主要数据公报" (in Chinese). Administrative Commission of Ngari Prefecture. 2021-06-10.
  2. ^ Zanda County, Tibetan Trekking, retrieved 20 July 2021.
  3. ^ Ancient horse skeleton offers glimpse into Tibetan past, horsetalk.co.nz, 25 April 2012.

Further reading

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