Dafdar, also spelled Daftar, is a township in the Taghdumbash Pamir located in

Tashkurgan Tajik Autonomous County Tashkurgan Tajik Autonomous County (often shortened to Tashkurgan County and officially spelled Taxkorgan) is an autonomous county of Kashgar Prefecture, in western Xinjiang, China. The county seat is Tashkurgan. The county is the only Tajik (P ...

Kashgar Prefecture Kashgar, also known as Kashi, is a prefecture located in southwestern Xinjiang, China, located in the Tarim Basin region (roughly the southern half of Xinjiang). It has an area of and 4,496,377 inhabitants at the 2020 census with a population d ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. The township is located near the China–Pakistan border. The southern part of the township is located in the

Trans-Karakoram Tract The Trans-Karakoram Tract (), also known as the Shaksgam Tract (), is an area of approximately north of the Karakoram watershed, including the Shaksgam valley. The tract is administered by China as part of its Taxkorgan and Yecheng counties ...

claimed by India.

Name

Dafdar means "door" or "gateway" in the

Sarikoli language The Sarikoli language (also Sariqoli, Selekur, Sarikul, Sariqul, Sariköli) is a member of the Pamir subgroup of the Southeastern Iranian languages spoken by the Pamiris in Xinjiang, China and Chitral, Pakistan. It is officially referred to i ...

, spoken by Chinese Tajiks.

History

The area has been used for grazing by various pastoral people in the region for centuries. During the

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

, the Chinese claimed

suzerainty A suzerain (, from Old French "above" + "supreme, chief") is a person, state (polity)">state or polity who has supremacy and dominant influence over the foreign policy">polity.html" ;"title="state (polity)">state or polity">state (polity)">st ...

over the area but permitted the

Mir ''Mir'' (, ; ) was a space station operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, first by the Soviet Union and later by the Russia, Russian Federation. ''Mir'' was the first modular space station and was assembled in orbit from 1986 to ...

of Hunza to administer the region in return for a

tribute A tribute (; from Latin ''tributum'', "contribution") is wealth, often in kind, that a party gives to another as a sign of submission, allegiance or respect. Various ancient states exacted tribute from the rulers of lands which the state con ...

. According to British colonial sources, this arrangement started during early Ayosh dynasty of Mir of Hunza, as the Mir conquered the Kirghiz nomads of Taghdumbash Pamir. The Mir erected a cairn in the village to evidence his control. The tribute system continued up until 1937. In 1875, British explorers recorded that Dafdar did not have a permanent settlement, but that it was used a caravan camp on the route between Tashkurgan and Hunza Valley. In the early 1900s, a group of Wakhi settled here with the consent of the Chinese authority. In March 1950, Dafdar Township was established. In 1959, Dafdar Township became a commune. In 1966, Dafdar Commune was renamed Xianfeng Commune ('pioneer commune', ). In 1975 in the closing days of the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a Social movement, sociopolitical movement in the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). It was launched by Mao Zedong in 1966 and lasted until his de ...

, the original name was restored. In February 1985, Dafdar Commune was made a township.

Emerald Emerald is a gemstone and a variety of the mineral beryl (Be3Al2(SiO3)6) colored green by trace amounts of chromium or sometimes vanadium.Hurlbut, Cornelius S. Jr., and Kammerling, Robert C. (1991). ''Gemology'', John Wiley & Sons, New York ...

deposits were discovered in Dafdar in 2003. These emeralds show similar chemical fingerprints to Afghan emeralds from Panjshir Valley.

Geography

K2, the second highest mountain on Earth, is located in the

on the China-Pakistan border in Dafdar. Dafdar village lies at an altitude of 3,400 m above sea level, just to the east of the

Karakoram Highway The Karakoram Highway (, ), also known as the KKH, National Highway 35 (), N-35, and the ChinaPakistan Friendship Highway, is a National Highways of Pakistan, national highway which extends from Hasan Abdal in the Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab p ...

Administrative divisions

, the township included five

villages A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban village ...

(''

Mandarin Chinese Mandarin ( ; zh, s=, t=, p=Guānhuà, l=Mandarin (bureaucrat), officials' speech) is the largest branch of the Sinitic languages. Mandarin varieties are spoken by 70 percent of all Chinese speakers over a large geographical area that stretch ...

pinyin Hanyu Pinyin, or simply pinyin, officially the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet, is the most common romanization system for Standard Chinese. ''Hanyu'' () literally means 'Han Chinese, Han language'—that is, the Chinese language—while ''pinyin' ...

-derived names''): * Dafdar ()() * Bayik (Atejiayili )() * Raskam (Resikamu / )() * Post Doctor ()() * Khunjerab ()()

Demographics

In 1997, 89.6% of the population of the township was Chinese Tajik and 10.3% of the population was Kyrgyz. It is inhabited by Wakhis. As of the 2000s, there was one

mosque A mosque ( ), also called a masjid ( ), is a place of worship for Muslims. The term usually refers to a covered building, but can be any place where Salah, Islamic prayers are performed; such as an outdoor courtyard. Originally, mosques were si ...

in the township and twelve religious professionals.

Transportation

* China National Highway 314

Notes

References

{{authority control Tashkurgan Tajik Autonomous County Township-level divisions of Xinjiang China–Pakistan border