Namling or Namlingxoi (; ) is a town and seat of

Namling County Namling County (; zh, s=南木林县) is a county of Shigatse in the Tibet Autonomous Region, China. Geography Namling is the current administrative name given to the valleys of Oyuk, Tobgyet, and Shang ... ssociated.. with both Buddhism a ...

in the

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 ...

of China, about by road northeast of

Shigatse Shigatse, officially known as Xigazê () or Rikaze ( zh, s=日喀则, p=Rìkāzé), 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 histo ...

(the second largest town in Tibet), north of Dobjoi.

Geography

The town is located at an

altitude Altitude is a distance measurement, usually in the vertical or "up" direction, between a reference datum (geodesy), datum and a point or object. The exact definition and reference datum varies according to the context (e.g., aviation, geometr ...

of 4683 metres (15,367 feet), at a bend in the Tsangpo River. The township of Namling covers an area of and has a population of about 7000 people. Several forts can be seen along the hills above the river valley and one fort is the Namling Dzong. Vegetation in the area is sparse today, almost devoid of any vegetation looks like a desert country. Fossils (assessed to be of 15 million years age) unearthed here reveal that leaves,

willows Willows, also called sallows and osiers, of the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 350 species (plus numerous hybrids) of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist soils in cold and temperate regions. Most species are known ...

, alders,

maple ''Acer'' is a genus of trees and shrubs commonly known as maples. The genus is placed in the soapberry family Sapindaceae.Stevens, P. F. (2001 onwards). Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. Version 9, June 2008 nd more or less continuously updated si ...

s, rhododendrons and

conifers Conifers () are a group of cone-bearing seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single extant class, Pinopsida. All e ...

existed here. The village is situated on a cone-shaped hill.

Education

Namling has developed in recent times into a regional educational centre, overlooked by the

Bureau of Education The Office of Education, at times known as the Department of Education and the Bureau of Education, was a small unit in the Federal Government of the United States within the U.S. Department of the Interior from 1867 to 1972. It is now separa ...

. In 1993, the Namling County Schools Project received funding from the US-based Boulder-Lhasa Sister City Project. The schools of this project achieved the best results in 1994, in Tibet.

Notable landmarks

Namling Dzong is a prominent fortress in the area, which has been likened to European castles along the

Rhine The Rhine ( ) is one of the List of rivers of Europe, major rivers in Europe. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein border, then part of the Austria–Swit ...

. In the early 17th century, the

5th Dalai Lama The 5th Dalai Lama, Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso (; ; 1617–1682) was recognized as the 5th Dalai Lama, and he became the first Dalai Lama to hold both Tibet's political and spiritual leadership roles. He is often referred to simply as the Great Fif ...

founded the Ganden Chökhor monastery in Namling, reached via a chain bridge; it was the first of thirteen monasteries of his era. There were 300 monks at the monastery in 1908. It was the seat of the Teshu Lamas.

Villages

The township contains the following villages: *Ren'ou Village () *Xuedui Village () *Gangba Village () *Qiawa Village () *Gangga Village () *Xuemai Village () *Gabu Village () *Kong'a Village () *Miru Village () *Baimadang Village () *Jilong Village () *Dalong Village ()

References

{{Shigatse Prefecture Populated places in Shigatse Township-level divisions of Tibet