Gyanema or Gya'nyima
KNAB place name database. Retrieved 8 May 2022. () is a large plain at the border between the

Zanda County 13-06-2025 Zanda County or Tsamda County (, zh, s=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 is said ...

and Burang County in western

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...

, which was once used for an annual market of Indo-Tibetan trade. The border has been sealed and the market shut down since the

Sino-Indian War The Sino–Indian War, also known as the China–India War or the Indo–China War, was an armed conflict between China and India that took place from October to November 1962. It was a military escalation of the Sino–Indian border dispu ...

of 1962. At the present time, there is only a small settlement at the western edge of the plain called Xilanta (), where China operates a military outpost.

Geography

The Gynema plain lies between two tributaries of Lamchang Chu (), one in the west that rises below the Darma Pass (and called Darma Yankti by the Indians) and another in the east that rises in the hills further east and forms a large lake called Gago Cuo () or Gyanema Lake. At the top of the lake on a hillock there was a fort called Gyanemakhar, which is now in ruins. Lamchang Chu drains into the

Sutlej river The Sutlej River or the Satluj River is a major river in Asia, flowing through China, India and Pakistan, and is the longest of the five major rivers of the Punjab region. It is also known as ''Satadru''; and is the easternmost tributary of th ...

and flows west. Immediately to the south of the Gyanema plain is the basin of the

Karnali River Karnali may refer to: Places in Nepal * Karnali Bridge, a bridge over the Karnali River in Nepal * Karnali Highway, a vital transport link in Nepal * Karnali Province, a federal province in Nepal * Karnali River also known as Ghaghara and Sarayu, ...

, which flows east. Thus the plain itself may be said to form the water divide between Sutlej and Karnali. The Gyanema market was accessible from all the three

Bhotiya Bhotiya or Bhot (, ) is an Indian and Nepali exonym lumping together various ethnic groups speaking Tibetic languages, as well as some groups speaking other Tibeto-Burman languages living in the Transhimalayan region that divides India from T ...

valleys of Kumaon. The Joharis accessed it via the triple passes of Unta Dhura, Jainti and Kungribingri passes. The Darmiyas could use the Darma Pass. And, the Byansis of

Kuthi Valley Kuthi Valley (or Kuti Valley) is a Himalayan valley situated in the Pithoragarh District, Kumaon division of the Uttarakhand state of India. Located in the eastern part of Uttarakhand at an elevation of , it is the last valley before the border ...

could access it via Lympiadhura. On the Tibetan side, the Gyanema plain was roughly equidistant from the Daba Town and the

Burang Town Purang or Burang (,, zh, s=普兰镇), is a town which serves as the administrative center of Purang County, Ngari Prefecture of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), China. The town lies at an altitude of 3,900m (12,795 feet) in the valley of t ...

(also called Taklakot). Traders would bring their goods for the annual market from their normal residence. The Tibetan goods were salt, borax, wool, skins, cloth and utensils. They exchanged them for silver, wheat, rice, ''satoo'', ''ghur'', candied sugar, pepper, beads, and other Indian manufactures.

References

Bibliography

* * * {{coord, 30, 48, N, 80, 42, E, display=title, region:CN_type:city_source:GNS-enwiki Zanda County Populated places in Ngari Prefecture