The Ponpori hills are a range of hills with grey soil, southwest of
Shigatse
Shigatse, officially known as Xigazê (; Nepali: ''सिगात्से''), is a prefecture-level city of the Tibet Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China. Its area of jurisdiction, with an area of , corresponds to the histor ...
, in southwestern
Tibet
Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa, Taman ...
. The Drum River runs through them.
They are best known as the location of the central monastery of the Sakya, one of the four great traditions of Tibetan
Mahayana Buddhism. Sakya (Tibetan: ''sa skya'', grey or whitish soil) is named after a patch of white earth in the shape of a lion's face on the mountainside.
Landforms of Tibet
Hills of China
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