Rutog County (, zh, s=日土县) is a

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

Ngari Prefecture Ngari Prefecture () or Ali Prefecture ( zh, s=阿里地区 , t=阿里地區 , p=Ālǐ Dìqū) is a prefecture of China's Tibet Autonomous Region covering Western Tibet, whose traditional name is Ngari Khorsum. Its administrative centre and large ...

Tibet Autonomous Region The Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), often shortened to Tibet in English or Xizang in Pinyin, Hanyu Pinyin, is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People's Republic of China. It was established in 1965 to replace the ...

, China. The county seat is the new Rutog Town, located some or 700 miles west-northwest of the Tibetan capital,

Lhasa Lhasa, officially the Chengguan District of Lhasa City, is the inner urban district of Lhasa (city), Lhasa City, Tibet Autonomous Region, Southwestern China. Lhasa is the second most populous urban area on the Tibetan Plateau after Xining ...

. Rutog County shares a border with

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

, which is disputed. The county has a rich history of folk tales, myths, legends, proverbs and folk songs and has many caves, rock paintings and other relics. The Xinjiang-Tibet Highway runs through the Rutog County for . The modern county established in March 1961 covers . It has a very low population density with a population of just over 10,000.

Name

'Rutog' is Tibetan for "mountain shaped like a spear and fork".

Geography and climate

Rutog County is located in northwestern Tibet, in the

, with a number of territorial borders. It is divided into 12 townships and 30 village committees. The average altitude of the county is with a maximum altitude of . To the north, Rutog County shares borders with Hotan County (Hetian), Qira County (Cele) and Keriya County (Yutian) in

Hotan Prefecture Hotan PrefectureThe official spelling is "Hotan" according to (see also #Etymology, § Etymology) is located in the Tarim Basin region of southwestern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Xinjiang, China, bordering the Tibet Autonomous Region to t ...

(Hetian), Xinjiang. To the east, the county borders Gêrzê County. The disputed

Aksai Chin Aksai Chin is a region administered by China partly in Hotan County, Hotan Prefecture, Xinjiang, and partly in Rutog County, Ngari Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region, Tibet, and constituting the easternmost portion of the larger Kashmir regio ...

plateau, which China administers as part of the Hotan County is to the northwest of Rutog County. To the west lies

Ladakh Ladakh () is a region administered by India as a union territory and constitutes an eastern portion of the larger Kashmir region that has been the subject of a Kashmir#Kashmir dispute, dispute between India and Pakistan since 1947 and India an ...

, a

union territory Among the states and union territories of India, a Union Territory (UT) is a region that is directly governed by the Government of India, central government of India, as opposed to the states, which have their own State governments of India, s ...

of India, with which Rutog has had a long historical relationship. Lakes in Rutog County include Bangda Lake, Guozha Lake, Longmu Lake, Lumajangdong Co and Wo Erba Lake. The eastern part of the

Pangong Lake Pangong Tso or Pangong Lake (; zh, s=班公错, p=Bān gōng cuò; ) is an endorheic lake spanning eastern Ladakh and West Tibet situated at an elevation of . It is long and divided into five sublakes, called ''Pangong Tso'', ''Tso Nyak'', ...

lies in the Rutog County, while the western part is in Ladakh. Rutog County has a rough subarctic climate with long, very cold, sometimes snowy winters and short, cool, humid summers (''Dfc'') owing its extreme altitude.

History

Rutog was part of the

Maryul Maryul (), also called ''mar-yul'' of ''mnga'-ris'', was the western-most Tibetan kingdom based in modern-day Ladakh and some parts of Tibet. The kingdom had its capital at Shey. The kingdom was founded by Lhachen Palgyigon, during the rule ...

kingdom (modern Ladakh), when it was established in the 10th century. It was again consolidated as part of Ladakh during the reign of Sengge Namgyal, but was later conquered by Lhasa through the Tibet-Ladakh-Mughal War. Rutog and Ladakh continued to have extensive trading relations at all times, with occasional disputes over borders. The headquarters of the region was at Old Rudok (Rutog Dzong; ), a hill top location, which boasted a fort as well as several monasteries. During the period of the

British Raj The British Raj ( ; from Hindustani language, Hindustani , 'reign', 'rule' or 'government') was the colonial rule of the British The Crown, Crown on the Indian subcontinent, * * lasting from 1858 to 1947. * * It is also called Crown rule ...

in India, European visitors were expressly prohibited from visiting the Rudok, but the British official E. B. Wakefield managed to visit it in 1939. With the 1950 Chinese annexation of Tibet, Rutog became part of the

of China. In October 1983, the county seat was moved from Old Rudok to the village of Derub ( zh, c=德汝昆孜, p=Dé rǔ kūn zī; ). The present Rutog Town was built sometime around 1999 a short distance away from Derub. The site of the new town appears to have been originally a suburb of the Derub village called Gyelgosang (; ).

Administrative divisions

Rutog county is divided into 1

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

and 4

townships A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

Demographics and economy

, the residents of the county were Tibetan, there is also a Ladakhi minority. Rutog County's economy is based around farming and animal husbandry. Aside from wool, butter, hides, cattle cashmere, etc. are produced. In Rutog County, the main growing crop is barley and yaks, sheep, goats, horses and other livestock are important to the economy. Rutog County has many wild animals and plants, including the

black-necked crane The black-necked crane (''Grus nigricollis'') is a medium-sized crane (bird), crane in Asia that breeds on the Tibetan Plateau and remote parts of India and Bhutan. It is long with a wingspan, and it weighs . It is whitish-gray, with a black h ...

goose A goose (: geese) is a bird of any of several waterfowl species in the family Anatidae. This group comprises the genera '' Anser'' (grey geese and white geese) and '' Branta'' (black geese). Some members of the Tadorninae subfamily (e.g., Egy ...

, wild yak,

Tibetan antelope The Tibetan antelope or chiru (''Pantholops hodgsonii'') (, pronounced ; ) is a medium-sized bovid native to the northeastern Tibetan plateau. Most of the population live within the Chinese border, while some scatter across India and Bhutan in ...

, Mongolian gazelle,

black sheep In the English language, black sheep is an idiom that describes a member of a group who is different from the rest, especially a family member who does not fit in. The term stems from sheep whose fleece is colored black rather than the more comm ...

kiang The kiang (''Equus kiang'') is the largest of the ''Asinus'' subgenus. It is native to the Tibetan Plateau in Ladakh India, northern Pakistan, Tajikistan, China and northern Nepal. It inhabits montane grasslands and shrublands. Other common nam ...

, and

bear Bears are carnivoran mammals of the family (biology), family Ursidae (). They are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans. Although only eight species of bears are extant, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats ...

. A number of rare animals are protected by the government and are of high value. Known mineral resources are

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

lead Lead () is a chemical element; it has Chemical symbol, symbol Pb (from Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a Heavy metal (elements), heavy metal that is density, denser than most common materials. Lead is Mohs scale, soft and Ductility, malleabl ...

chromite Chromite is a crystalline mineral composed primarily of iron(II) oxide and chromium(III) oxide compounds. It can be represented by the chemical formula of Iron, FeChromium, Cr2Oxygen, O4. It is an oxide mineral belonging to the spinel group. The ...

borax The BORAX Experiments were a series of safety experiments on boiling water nuclear reactors conducted by Argonne National Laboratory in the 1950s and 1960s at the National Reactor Testing Station in eastern Idaho.

, and

salt In common usage, salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl). When used in food, especially in granulated form, it is more formally called table salt. In the form of a natural crystalline mineral, salt is also known as r ...

. In the five years from 2006 to 2011, Rutog County produced 72 tons of cashmere wool worth 16 million yuan (US$2.5 million in 2011). China produces 75% of the world's cashmere wool. In 1984, the average per capita income of Rutog County residents was 478 yuan. The

China National Highway 219 China National Highway 219 (G219; Chinese language, Chinese: ''Guódào219'') is a highway which runs along the entire western and southern border of the People's Republic of China, from Kom-Kanas Mongolian Ethnic Township, Kom-Kanas Mongolian et ...

passes through Rutog County.

Incidents

At around 11 AM on 17 July 2016, nine people, 350 sheep and 110 yaks were buried in an

avalanche An avalanche is a rapid flow of snow down a Grade (slope), slope, such as a hill or mountain. Avalanches can be triggered spontaneously, by factors such as increased precipitation or snowpack weakening, or by external means such as humans, othe ...

near the Aru Lake (at ), about from Rutog Town. The avalanche fell on a grazing area and the snow was as much as deep. The local government dispatched rescuers and equipment to the site of the avalanche. The avalanche was described by

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

as one of the largest avalanches in history. On 21 September 2016, another similarly large avalanche occurred just to the south.

Historical maps

Historical maps including Rutog: File:China West 1906-08 Sven Hedin.jpg, Map of the expeditions of Sven Hedin (1906–8) including Rutog (labeled as Rudok) ( RGS, early 20th century) File:Txu-oclc-6654394-ni-44-3rd-ed.jpg, Map including Rutog (labeled as Rudok) (

AMS AMS or Ams may refer to: Organizations Companies * Alenia Marconi Systems * American Management Systems * AMS (Advanced Music Systems) * ams AG, semiconductor manufacturer * AMS Pictures * Auxiliary Medical Services Educational institutions ...

, 1950) File:Operational Navigation Chart G-7, 6th edition.jpg, Map including the Rutog County area ( DMA, 1980) File:Txu-pclmaps-oclc-22834566 g-7d.jpg, Map including Rutog (Jih-t'u) ( DMA, 1995)

Notes

References

External links

"China Tibet Information Centre" * https://web.archive.org/web/20200522001714/http://rt.al.gov.cn/info/1073/4800.htm {{Ngari Prefecture Counties of Tibet Ngari Prefecture