Garpön

Last updated • 1 min readFrom Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

A garpön is historically a local or regional leader in Tibet and parts of Ladakh who has command and prominence over a district or area. He is highly regarded by the people and respected as a governor although his power and authority is informal in a given area. Ultimate leadership and spiritual leadership in Tibet was always given centrally to the Dalai Lama in the capital of Lhasa. Garpöns were usually regarded as localized ministers to maintain district order. However, with the Chinese invasion of 1949, with Tibet now under the control of the People's Republic of China, the rulership of local district garpöns has diminished somewhat in the Tibet Autonomous Region. Sir Edward Birkbeck Wakefield has cited that in Ladakh there was often a senior and a junior garpön. [1]

In the film Seven Years in Tibet (1997 film) , a garpön in western Tibet was played by Samdup Dhargyal and was cited as being the eminent ruler of the province.

See also

Related Research Articles

Tibet Plateau region in Asia

Tibet is a region in East Asia covering much of the Tibetan Plateau spanning about 2.5 million km2. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpa, Tamang, Qiang, Sherpa, and Lhoba peoples and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han Chinese and Hui people. Tibet is the highest region on Earth, with an average elevation of 5,000 m (16,000 ft). The highest elevation in Tibet is Mount Everest, Earth's highest mountain, rising 8,848 m (29,029 ft) above sea level.

Ladakh Union territory of India

Ladakh is an Indian region administered as an union territory, and constituting a part of the larger Kashmir region, which has been the subject of dispute between India, Pakistan, and China since 1947. It is bordered by the Tibet Autonomous Region to the east, the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh to the south, both the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir and the Pakistan-administered Gilgit-Baltistan to the west, and the southwest corner of Xinjiang across the Karakoram Pass in the far north. It extends from the Siachen Glacier in the Karakoram range to the north to the main Great Himalayas to the south. The eastern end, consisting of the uninhabited Aksai Chin plains, is claimed by the Indian Government as part of Ladakh, and has been under Chinese control since 1962. Until 2019, Ladakh was a region of the state of Jammu and Kashmir. In August 2019, the Parliament of India passed an act by which Ladakh became a union territory on 31 October 2019.

Chogyal Monarchs of the former kingdoms of Sikkim and Ladakh in present-day India

The Chogyal were the monarchs of the former kingdoms of Sikkim and Ladakh in present-day India, which were ruled by separate branches of the Namgyal dynasty. The Chogyal was the absolute monarch of Sikkim from 1642 to 1975, when the monarchy was abolished and its people voted in a referendum to make Sikkim the 22nd state of India.

Pangong Tso Soda lake

Pangong Tso or Pangong Lake is an endorheic lake spanning eastern Ladakh and West Tibet situated at an elevation of 4,225 m (13,862 ft). It is 134 km (83 mi) long and divided into five sublakes, called Pangong Tso, Tso Nyak, Rum Tso and Nyak Tso. Approximately 50% of the length of the overall lake lies within Tibet, 40% in Ladakh and the rest is disputed but controlled by China. The lake is 5 km (3.1 mi) wide at its broadest point. All together it covers 604 km2. During winter the lake freezes completely, despite being saline water. It has a land-locked basin separated from the Indus River basin by a small elevated ridge, but is believed to have been part of the latter in prehistoric times.

William Moorcroft (explorer) 18th/19th-century English traveler

William Moorcroft was an English veterinarian and explorer employed by the East India Company. Moorcroft travelled extensively throughout the Himalayas, Tibet and Central Asia, eventually reaching Bukhara, in present-day Uzbekistan.

Sir Edward Birkbeck Wakefield, 1st Baronet, was a British civil servant and Conservative Party politician.

Gartok Place in Tibet Autonomous Region, Peoples Republic of China

Gartok, now called Garyarsa, is a trade-market of Tibet, situated on the bank of the Indus on the road between Shigatse and Leh, to the east of Simla. At an elevation of 14,630 ft, it is located at the base of the Kailash Range; it was formerly the main town and summer capital of western Tibet, and its administrator was called the Garpön. The name means 'military camp.' Pop. fewer than 10,000.

History of Ladakh

Information about Ladakh before the birth of the kingdom during the 9th century is scarce. Ladakh can hardly be considered a separate political entity before the establishment of the kingdom about 950 CE, after the collapse of the early Tibetan Empire and the border regions became independent kingdoms under independent rulers, most of whom came from branches of the Tibetan royal family.

Tourism in Ladakh

Tourism is one of an economic contributor to the union territory of Ladakh in Northern India. The union territory is part of the broader disputed Kashmir region and is sandwiched between the Karakoram mountain range to the north and the Himalayas to the south and is situated at the height of 11,400 ft. Ladakh is composed of the Leh and Kargil districts. The region contains prominent Buddhist sites and has an ecotourism industry. As of 2020, tourism industry in Ladakh was worth 600 crore (US$84 million).

Sino-Indian border dispute Border dispute between China and India

The Sino-Indian border dispute is an ongoing territorial dispute over the sovereignty of two relatively large, and several smaller, separated pieces of territory between China and India. The first of which, Aksai Chin, is claimed by China as part of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and Tibet Autonomous Region and claimed by India as part of the union territory of Ladakh; it is a virtually uninhabited high-altitude wasteland in the larger regions of Kashmir and Tibet and is crossed by the Xinjiang-Tibet Highway. The other disputed territory is south of the McMahon Line, formerly known as the North East Frontier Agency and now called Arunachal Pradesh. The McMahon Line was part of the 1914 Simla Convention signed between British India and Tibet, without China's agreement. As of 2020, India continues to maintain that the McMahon Line is the legal border in the east. China has never accepted that border, stating that Tibet was never independent when it signed the Simla Convention.

This is a list of topics related to Tibet.

Dêmqog, Ngari Prefecture Village in Tibet, China

Dêmqog, traditionally transliterated as Demchok, is a village in the disputed Demchok sector that is administered as part of the Ngari Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region by China.

Religion in Tibet

The main religion in Tibet has been Buddhism since its outspread in the 8th century AD. The historical region of Tibet is nowadays mostly comprised by the Tibet Autonomous Region of China and partly by the provinces of Qinghai and Sichuan. Before the arrival of Buddhism, the main religion among Tibetans was an indigenous shamanic and animistic religion, Bon, which now comprises a sizeable minority and which would later influence the formation of Tibetan Buddhism.

Maryul Medieval kingdom in West Tibet

Maryul of Ngari, or the Kingdom of Ladakh, was a west Tibetan kingdom based in modern-day Ladakh and Tibet Autonomous Region. The Maryul kingdom was based in Shey and evolved into the modern Ladakh.

Changpa

The Changpa or Champa are a semi-nomadic Tibetan people found mainly in the Changtang in Ladakh and in Jammu and Kashmir. A smaller number resides in the western regions of the Tibet Autonomous Region and were partially relocated for the establishment of the Changtang Nature Reserve. As of 1989 there were half a million nomads living in the Changtang area.

Ganden Phodrang

The Ganden Phodrang or Ganden Podrang was the Tibetan government that was established by the 5th Dalai Lama with the help of the Güshi Khan of the Khoshut in 1642. Lhasa became the capital of Tibet in the beginning of this period, with all temporal power being conferred to the 5th Dalai Lama by Güshi Khan in Shigatse. After the expulsion of the Dzungars, Tibet was under administrative rule of the Qing dynasty between 1720 and 1912, but the Ganden Phodrang government lasted until the 1950s, when Tibet was incorporated into the People's Republic of China. Kashag became the governing council of the Ganden Phodrang regime during the early Qing rule.

Demchok, Ladakh Village in Ladakh, India

Demchok, also called Parigas by China, is a village and military encampment in the Demchok sector disputed between India and China. It is administered as part of the Nyoma tehsil in the Leh district of Ladakh by India, and claimed by China as part of the Tibet Autonomous Region.

Demchok sector Disputed region between China and India

The Demchok sector is a disputed region centered on the villages of Demchok, Ladakh and Dêmqog, Ngari Prefecture, situated near the confluence of the Charding Nullah and Indus River. It is part of the greater Sino-Indian border dispute between China and India. Both India and China claim the disputed region, with a Line of Actual Control between the two nations situated along the Charding Nullah.

Demchok (historical village) Historical village between Ladakh and Tibet

Demchok was described by a British boundary commission in 1847 as a village lying on the border between the Kingdom of Ladakh and the Tibet. It was a "hamlet of half a dozen huts and tents", divided into two parts by a rivulet which formed the boundary between two states. The rivulet, a tributary of the Indus River variously called the Demchok River, Charding Nullah or the Lhari stream, was set as the boundary between Ladakh and Tibet in the 1684 Treaty of Tingmosgang. By 1904–05, the Tibetan side of the hamlet was said to have had 8 to 9 huts of zamindars (landholders), while the Ladakhi side had two. The area of the former Demchok now straddles the Line of Actual Control, the effective border of the People's Republic of China's Tibet Autonomous Region and the Republic of India's Ladakh Union Territory.

References

  1. Sir Edward Birkbeck Wakefield, Past Imperative (1966)