Jonê County
Encyclopedia
Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture
Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture is an autonomous prefecture in southern Gansu Province, China. It includes Xiahe and the Labrang Monastery, Luqu, Maqu, and other mostly Tibetan towns and villages...
, Gansu Province, China. It is one of 58 counties of Gansu. It is part of the Gannan Prefecture. Its postal code is 747600. Its area is 4,954 km2, and its population is over 100,000 people. It is administered from Jonê Town
Jonê Town
Jonê Town It is situated adjacent to the major Tibetan Geluk Chone Monastery, on the northern bank of the Lu-chu river in Jonê County, Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Gansu Province, China, at an altitude of about 2,610 m .It is fairly large in size at 374 km2...
(Tibetan: Cho-ne Town)
Description
The county covers both banks of the middle section of the Lu-chu. The country town and adjacent Cho-ne MonasteryCho-ne Monastery
Chone Monastery , also Chone Gonchen Ganden Shedrubling, or Choni Monastery was originally a Sakya monastery...
are on the north bank. The side valleys on the southern side used to be branches of the ancient kingdom of Cho-ne.
History
- "There are traditions of Tibetan soldiers left behind [after the late 10th century] at several border outposts, such as Cho-ne, where they established viable settlements, and of the remaining Tibetan conscript troops, called the Wun Mo, carving out considerable territory for themselves until they were perhaps absorbed into that amalgam of people of Tibetan stock, which came to form the Hsi Hsia Kingdom (982—1224)."
Cho-ne was part of a separate kingdom formed, according to legend, after its invasion by warriors who migrated across the mountains from Szechuan conquering the local tribes in 1404. The contemporary descendants of the Choni royal line claim that their line is Tibetan, and that their ancestors migrated from central Tibet through Sichuan.
The Yongle Emperor
Yongle Emperor
The Yongle Emperor , born Zhu Di , was the third emperor of the Ming Dynasty of China from 1402 to 1424. His Chinese era name Yongle means "Perpetual Happiness".He was the Prince of Yan , possessing a heavy military base in Beiping...
(May 2, 1360 – August 12, 1424) named one of these invading warriors hereditary chief, bestowing the name of "Yang" and an imperial seal upon his line. The Choni Prince (co ne rgyal po) established a palace on the north bank of the Tao River
Tao River
Tao River is a right tributary of China's Yellow River. It starts in Xiqing Mountains near the Gansu-Qinghai border, flows eastward across Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, and then northward more or less along the border between Dingxi Prefecture-level City in the east and Gannan and Linxia...
. The family holding the Yang seal continued to rule over 48 Tibetan clans in Chon-ne as a semi-independent kingdom from the early 15th century for 23 generations, until 1928, when it was placed under the control of the Lanchow government.
Among the six monasteries in the county, all of them Tibetan Geluk establishments, is the great Cho-ne Monastery
Cho-ne Monastery
Chone Monastery , also Chone Gonchen Ganden Shedrubling, or Choni Monastery was originally a Sakya monastery...
.)