Golok people

Last updated December 11, 2023

The Golok or Ngolok (Tibetan : མགོ་ལོག; Chinese :果洛; pinyin :guǒluò) peoples live in Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai, China around the upper reaches of the Yellow River (Wylie : dmar chu) and the sacred mountain Amne Machin (Wylie : rma rgyal spom ra). The Golok were renowned in both Tibet and China as ferocious fighters free from Tibetan and Chinese control.

History

The Golok were renowned in both Tibet and China as ferocious fighters free from Tibetan and Chinese control. The name Golok (Wylie : mgo log, ’go log) is sometimes interpreted as meaning "rebellious". A Chinese government document translated Golok as "turned head".^[3] Neither Tibet or China was able to subdue them for long.^[4] Legends say they were ruled by a Queen, a reincarnated goddess whose power was handed down from mother to daughter.^[4]

The Golog sought to remain ungoverned by any polity, not Tibet, not Qing China. A Golog herder was heard saying in 1908, “We Golog have...from time immemorial obeyed none but our own laws,”^[5] A folk song recorded in 1951 asserted, “Against the orders of the Dharma King of Tibet I rebel! Against China I rebel! We make our own laws!”^[6]

Encounter with Tibet

In 1828 when the great mystic and poet of early 19th century Amdo, Shabkar Tsokdruk Rangdrol, was returning to Amdo from Central Tibet, his caravan, carrying letters of passage from both the Dalai and Panchen Lamas, was brutally attacked and pillaged by Golok tribesmen. Some months later Shabkar told the Qinghai amban, who was the senior Qing administrator in Xining, what had happened. The amban, admitting that the Golok tribes were beyond Imperial control asked Shabkar to try preaching to them in hopes that this might tame them to some extent.^[4]

Encounter with China

The Chinese had never been able to control the Goloks before, some areas of which owed allegiance to Labrang, but many others which were completely independent. Occasional ambushes killed soldiers of the Ninghai Army, causing loss of dispatches and livestock like yaks. The Hui army, with its modern weaponry, retaliated in draconian fashion and exterminated a group of Goloks, and then convoked the Golok tribes for negotiations, only to slaughter them. A Christian missionary, in writing of the Muslim army's extermination of the Goloks as an act of God, wrote of the events of 1921 in the following way:

During the summer months God again used the Mohammedans of Western Kansu Province to answer more fully the prayers of His people for the last half century for the dark land of Tibet. In the month of April an expedition was launched by them against the wild Goloks, occupying a large territory five or six days to the west and south-west of the field we are at present endeavoring to occupy. One of the chief natural reasons for the incursion was the killing, by the Goloks, of several soldiers carrying official dispatches and seizing four or five thousand yaks belonging to the High Commissioner. The Goloks consisted of three groups and were a most haughty people, considering themselves impregnable, since they had never been subdued by the Chinese in all their history. But the Mohammedans with their up-to-date firearms practically annihilated one group, and the other two hastened to capitulate. It is reported, though that the first and most crushing blow was struck through treachery. The three groups were called together to tender their submission. The Goloks were suddenly attacked and a large number of them were killed. The remainder fled without making any attempt in their weakened condition to avenge their fallen friends. Then followed a chapter of awful bloodshed and cruelty. Men, women, and children were ruthlessly put to the sword and thousands were driven into the Yellow River to perish in its muddy water. A heavy indemnity was exacted, thousands of sheep, yaks, and horses driven away, and tons of wool confiscated. Thus is made safe for travel and missionary work a vast piece of country inhabited by thousands of nomads. We are praising God for the advance step He has enabled us to take.'^[7]

After Tibetans attacked the Ninghai Muslim army in 1922 and 1923, the Ninghai army returned in 1924 and crushed the Tibetans, killing numerous Tibetans.^[7]

Distribution

Their territory is referred in Tibetan as smar kog. The exact boundaries of the historical territory of Golok do not correspond to the boundaries of the modern prefecture. Historically the region knows as Golog included parts of northern Sichuan, Maqu County in Ganlho Prefecture in Gansu, and other places in the traditional Tibetan regions of Amdo and Khams.

Footnotes

↑ Stein (1961), pp. 44, 68.
↑ Rinzin Thargyal; Huber, Toni (2007). Nomads of eastern Tibet: social organization and economy of a pastoral estate in the kingdom of Dege. BRILL. p. 185.
↑ Da Jie 达杰; Da (2008). Golok: From my perspective | 果洛：见闻. Internal Chinese Government Document.
1 2 3 Baldizzoni (1994), p. 53.
↑ Rock, Joseph. The Amnye Ma-Chhen Range and Adjacent Regions: A MonographicStudy. 127. Rome: IsMEO, 1956.
↑ Norbu, Namkhai. Journey among the Tibetan Nomads. 3. Dharamsala: Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, 1997.
1 2 Nietupski, Paul Kocot (1999). Labrang: a Tibetan Buddhist monastery at the crossroads of four civilizations. Snow Lion Publications. p. 86. ISBN 1-55939-090-5 . Retrieved 2010-10-28.

Related Research Articles

While the Tibetan plateau has been inhabited since pre-historic times, most of Tibet's history went unrecorded until the introduction of Tibetan Buddhism around the 6th century. Tibetan texts refer to the kingdom of Zhangzhung as the precursor of later Tibetan kingdoms and the originators of the Bon religion. While mythical accounts of early rulers of the Yarlung Dynasty exist, historical accounts begin with the introduction of Buddhism from India in the 6th century and the appearance of envoys from the unified Tibetan Empire in the 7th century. Following the dissolution of the empire and a period of fragmentation in the 9th-10th centuries, a Buddhist revival in the 10th–12th centuries saw the development of three of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism.

Amdo is one of the three traditional Tibetan regions, the others being U-Tsang in the west and Kham in the east. Ngari in the north-west was incorporated into Ü-Tsang. Amdo is also the birthplace of the 14th Dalai Lama. Amdo encompasses a large area from the Machu to the Drichu (Yangtze). Amdo is mostly coterminous with China's present-day Qinghai province, but also includes small portions of Sichuan and Gansu provinces.

Kham is one of the three traditional Tibetan regions, the others being Amdo in the northeast, and Ü-Tsang in central Tibet. The original residents of Kham are called Khampas, and were governed locally by chieftains and monasteries. Kham presently covers a land area distributed between five regions in China, most of it in Tibet Autonomous Region and Sichuan, with smaller portions located within Qinghai, Gansu and Yunnan provinces.

Kelzang Gyatso, also spelled Kalzang Gyatso, Kelsang Gyatso and Kezang Gyatso, was the 7th Dalai Lama of Tibet, recognized as the true incarnation of the 6th Dalai Lama, and enthroned after a pretender was deposed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Labrang Monastery</span> Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Xiahe County, Gansu, China

Labrang Monastery is one of the six great monasteries of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. Its formal name is Genden Shédrup Dargyé Trashi Gyésu khyilwé Ling.

Surmang refers to a vast alpine nomadic and farming region, historically a duchy under the King of Nangchen, with vast land holdings spreading over what is today the Tibet Autonomous Region and Qinghai Province. In Tibetan the King of Nangchen's realm was called the "nyishu dza nga" or the 21 (provinces). Since 1959 it is mainly within the Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Qinghai province in China. Yushu Prefecture is 97% ethnic Tibetan. The Surmang region is one of the poorest regions in China ranking it among the world's highest infant and maternal mortality, almost 100% illiteracy, and personal income of less than US 14¢/day. It is part of the catchment in China of the 30 million ultra-poor.

Khams Tibetan is the Tibetic language used by the majority of the people in Kham. Khams is one of the three branches of the traditional classification of Tibetic languages. In terms of mutual intelligibility, Khams could communicate at a basic level with the Ü-Tsang branch.

GologTibetan Autonomous Prefecture is an autonomous prefecture occupying the southeastern corner of Qinghai province, People's Republic of China. The prefecture has an area of 76,312 km² (29,464 sq mi) and its seat is located in Maqên County. Due to its special geographical location and natural environment, the entire autonomous preference has been included in the Chinese largest natural environmental protection area — the Sanjiangyuan National Park.

Amne Machin, Anyi Machen, or Anyê Maqên is the highest peak of a mountain range of the same name in the southeast of Qinghai province, China. It is revered in Tibetan Buddhism as the home of the chief indigenous deity of Amdo, Machen Pomra.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andreas Gruschke</span> German author, photographer and Tibet researcher

Andreas Gruschke was a German author, photographer and Tibet researcher. His scientific background was that of a geographer, Sinologist and ethnologist. He received a 1990 M.A. at Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, and a Ph.D. in 2009 at Leipzig University.

This is a list of topics related to Tibet.

Kumbum Monastery, also called Ta'er Temple, is a Tibetan gompa in Lusar, Huangzhong County, Xining, Qinghai, China. It was founded in 1583 in a narrow valley close to the village of Lusar in the historical Tibetan region of Amdo. Its superior monastery is Drepung Monastery, immediately to the west of Lhasa. It is ranked in importance as second only to Lhasa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shambhala Training</span> Secular meditation techniques developed by Vajrayana-influenced Buddhists

Shambhala Training is a secular approach to meditation developed by Tibetan Buddhist teacher Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche and his students. It is based on what Trungpa calls Shambhala Vision, which sees enlightened society as not purely mythical, but as realizable by people of all faiths through practices of mindfulness/awareness, non-aggression, and sacred outlook.

Gyêgu Subdistrict, formerly a part of the Gyêgu or Jiegu town is a township-level division in Yushu, Yushu TAP, Qinghai, China. The name Gyêgu is still a common name for the Yushu city proper, which include Gyêgu subdistrict and three other subdistricts evolved from the former Gyêgu town. The four subdistricts altogether forms a modern town which developed from the old Tibetan trade mart called Jyekundo or Gyêgumdo in Tibetan and most Western sources. The town is also referred to as Yushu, synonymous with the prefecture of Yushu and the city of Yushu.

Amdo Tibetan is the Tibetic language spoken in Amdo. It has two varieties, the farmer dialects and the nomad dialects.

Tibet was a de facto independent state in East Asia that lasted from the collapse of the Manchu-led Qing dynasty in 1912 until its annexation by the People's Republic of China in 1951.

Dzongsar Monastery is a Buddhist monastery in Dêgê County in the Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Sichuan, China, southeast of the town of Derge and east of Palpung Monastery. Historically it lay in the Kham region of Tibet. It was founded in 746, destroyed in 1958, and rebuilt in 1983.

Tanggulashan, or Dangla Town, is a town in the southwest of Qinghai province, China. It forms the southern exclave of the county-level city of Golmud, in Haixi Mongol and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, partially administrated by Amdo County, Tibet Autonomous Region since 1963 and still officially a territory of Yushu Prefecture, Qinghai under trust administration of Golmud, Haixi Prefecture, Qinghai. Before the local administrative reform of 2005, it was known as Tanggula Township (唐古拉乡). It is the only place in China simultaneously under jurisdiction of three prefectures.

The Ma clique fought a series of military campaigns between 1917 and 1949 against unconquered Amchok and Ngolok (Golok) tribal Tibetan areas of Qinghai (Amdo), undertaken by two Hui commanders, Gen. Ma Qi and Gen. Ma Bufang, on behalf of the Beiyang and Kuomintang governments of the Republic of China. The campaigns lasted between 1917 and 1949. The conflict was spurred by multiple factors, notably for economic and socio-political reasons rather than by any racial or religious enmity.

The Ninghai Army, later the 26th Division (National Revolutionary Army) was a Muslim Hui army of the Republic of China commanded by General Ma Qi, who controlled the Xining area of Qinghai, then a special region of Gansu province. It was founded by Ma Qi in 1915.

References

Baldizzoni, Tiziana and Gianni (1994). Tibet: Journey to the Forbidden City. White Star S.r.l., Vercelli, Italy. American edition (1996) by Stewart, Tabori & Chang, New York N.Y. ISBN 1-55670-511-5.
Kornman, Robin. (2005) "The Influence of the Epic of King Gesar on Chogyam Trungpa," in Recalling Chogyam Trungpa, edit. Fabrice Midal. Shambhala Publications. Boston. ISBN 978-1-59030-207-1.
Stein, R. A. (1961): Les tribus anciennes des marches sino-tibétaines. Paris. Presses Universitaires de France.

External links

Photos of Golok people. Archived 2018-12-14 at the Wayback Machine
Thupten Chokor Ling Monastery - The Great Stupa for World Peace.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] Stein (1961), pp. 44, 68.

[2] Rinzin Thargyal; Huber, Toni (2007). Nomads of eastern Tibet: social organization and economy of a pastoral estate in the kingdom of Dege. BRILL. p. 185.

[3] Da Jie 达杰; Da (2008). Golok: From my perspective | 果洛：见闻. Internal Chinese Government Document.

[Baldizzoni-4] 1 2 3 Baldizzoni (1994), p. 53.

[5] Rock, Joseph. The Amnye Ma-Chhen Range and Adjacent Regions: A MonographicStudy. 127. Rome: IsMEO, 1956.

[6] Norbu, Namkhai. Journey among the Tibetan Nomads. 3. Dharamsala: Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, 1997.

[Nietupski-7] 1 2 Nietupski, Paul Kocot (1999). Labrang: a Tibetan Buddhist monastery at the crossroads of four civilizations. Snow Lion Publications. p. 86. ISBN 1-55939-090-5 . Retrieved 2010-10-28.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]