Xikang

The Chinese province Xikang ( Chinese西康省" Province of West Kham ", Pinyin: Xikang, old spellings: Hsi- k'ang, Sikang ) was in the west and in the eastern Tibet as a special administrative region from 1905 to 1927 and then as a regular province until 1955.

Consistent Western view, the People's Republic of China shared the eastern Tibetan Kham on different provinces. In fact, however, the opposite is the case, as appropriate administrative divisions had been formed on the basis of political fragmentation Khams already in late Imperial China ( Qing Dynasty 1644-1911 ). Under the name Xikang much of the eastern Tibetan region of Kham was (Tib. khams; Chinese:康, Pinyin: Kang ) in the period of Republic of China ( 1912-1949 ) to a province, but more on paper than in reality existed. While Kham total over the east of present-day Tibet Autonomous Region (AGT, in the districts of Qamdo, Nagqu and Nyingchi ), the south of Qinghai province ( Autonomous Prefecture of Yushu Tibetan ), the western part of Sichuan province ( autonomous district Garzê the Tibetans and Autonomous Prefecture of Tibetan and Qiang Ngawa ) and the northwest of Yunnan Province ( Autonomous District extends Deqin Tibetan ), Xikang enclosed only those parts of Kham, which are now among the AGT and Sichuan.

This goes back to the period after the invasion of the British Younghusband expedition, whose campaign to Lhasa and even for the temporary taking of the Tibetan capital by the British and the flight of the 13th Dalai Lama Thubten Gyatso led to Mongolia and China. 1904 reached the British expeditionary force under the command of Francis Younghusband Lhasa city after it had destroyed the weapons far less well Tibetan troops in several battles bloody. There, the Tibetans a trade agreement and a British base in Lhasa was imposed. Subsequent negotiations reaffirmed contracted the nominal suzerainty of China over Tibet, forced the Tibetans to the opening of trading posts and assignment of areas in the eastern Himalayan area (see NEFA and Arunachal Pradesh ). These events brought the rulers of the expiring imperial Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) to the conclusion that Tibet should be more integrated into the Chinese power and administration. In the wake of the Chinese General Zhao was Erfeng ( old spelling Chao Erh -feng ) 1905 equipped with large powers and authorized the military intervention in Tibet. His campaigns have left a bloody trail, earning him the nickname " Zhao the Butcher " earned. Since the Dalai Lama had fled, this time to British India and residing in Shigatse china friendly Panchen Lama has been appointed Chairman of the Lhasa government, Zhao ordered the management of the new Tibetan areas, including by summarizing the Tibetan counties east of Lhasa in the special administrative region Xikang.

The authorities of the Republic of China, prepared in 1927, the rebuilding of the Special Administrative Region in a province before, but the great conflict of the warlords ( warlords ) ruled China prevented here probably greater administrative progress. Although Xikang was awarded in 1939 the status of a regular Chinese province - with its administrative seat in Kangding (Chinese " Kham stabilize " ), the Tibetan or Chinese Dartsedo Dajianlu ( old spelling Tatsienlu ) - the regulatory authority over large distances only nominally, particularly in the areas near the Yangtze River or west of it. However, the influence of government in Lhasa took east Tanggula pass ( about 92 longitude) strongly and was more nominal than real. After the founding of the PRC, the province Xikang was dissolved in 1955 and the more culturally Tibetan embossed western part of the province of Tibet ( from 1965 AGT, Tibet Autonomous Region ) slammed, while the East was incorporated in the province of Sichuan.