Gyirong County
Kyirong or Gyirong County (Tibetan: སྐྱིད་གྲོང་རྫོང་།), also known by its Chinese name Jilong (Chinese: 吉隆县), is a county of the Shigatse Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region, China. It is famous for its mild climatically conditions and its abundant vegetation which is unusual for the Tibetan plateau. The capital lies at Zongga (Gungthang). Its name in Tibetan, Dzongka, means "mud walls".
Kyirong County
吉隆县 • སྐྱིད་གྲོང་རྫོང་། Gyirong, Jilong | |
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Tso Drolung (Drolung Lake) | |
Location of Gyirong County (red) within Xigazê City (yellow) and the Tibet Autonomous Region | |
Kyirong Location of the seat in Tibet Kyirong Kyirong (China) | |
| Coordinates: 28°51′16″N 85°17′48″E | |
| Country | China |
| Autonomous region | Tibet |
| Prefecture-level city | Shigatse |
| County seat | Dzongka |
| Area | |
| • Total | 9,019.7 km2 (3,482.5 sq mi) |
| Population (2020) | |
| • Total | 17,536 |
| • Density | 1.9/km2 (5.0/sq mi) |
| Time zone | UTC+8 (China Standard) |
| Website | www |
| Gyirong County | |||||||||
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| Chinese name | |||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 吉隆县 | ||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 吉隆縣 | ||||||||
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| Tibetan name | |||||||||
| Tibetan | སྐྱིད་གྲོང་རྫོང་། | ||||||||
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It is one of the four counties that comprise the Qomolangma National Nature Preserve (Kyirong, Dinggyê, Nyalam, and Tingri).
In 1945, Peter Aufschnaiter counted 26 temples and monasteries which covered the area of sKyid-grong and the neighboring La-sdebs. The most famous temple of sKyid-grong is the Byams-sprin lha-khang, erected by the famous Tibetan king Srong-btsan sgam-po (Songtsän Gampo) as one of the four Yang-´dul temples in the 7th century A.D. During the 11th century, the famous South Asian scholar Atisha visited sKyi-grong. sKyid-grong was one of the favorite meditation places of the Tibetan Yogin Mi-la ras-pa (Milarepa).
The local Kyirong language has been researched thoroughly and folk literature of this region was collected and published during the 1980s.