Gyêgu

Gyegu, also Jyekundo ( Tib. skye dgu mdo, Kyegu Thu,结 古镇, pinyin: Jiegu Zhen, previous descriptions: Kegudo, Kegedo, Kierkoudo, Kyegundo, Yekoundo, Dschje - kundo, Gyegundo, Gyäkundo ) is a large municipality in the Autonomous Yushu County of Tibetans in the Chinese province of Qinghai. It is the cultural, political and administrative center, the " capital " of the Autonomous District. Located in the northern part of the traditional Tibetan province of Kham culture, Gyegu was a relatively small trading nevertheless one of the most important trade hub on the way to Tibet.

As the capital of Yushu, the greater community is usually also called today " Yushu ". She is also the seat of government of the independent city of Yushu. Gyegu has an area of ​​807.7 km ² and a population of stay, the number is 40000-60000. It is characterized Tibetan to around 85 %. It is with an altitude of 3700-3800 m slightly higher than Lhasa.

History

The history of the ancient trading town Jyekundo goes back very far and is closely intertwined with the monasteries of the environment, in particular the enthroned above the town of Sakya Monastery Döndrub Ling, which was founded in 1398 on the site of a previously existing here Bön monastery. As part of the former kingdom of Nangchen developed at the trading center under the local llama hierarchs of Döndrub Ling, the resident in the monastery Drawu Mergen, a second secular local power that extended over the wider area to the north of the Dri Chu ( Jamgtse ).

Still in the first half of the 20th century lived less than 700 families in Jyekundo. For 1937 a population of 2,244 inhabitants ( without monks and only temporarily present dealer) is specified, the built-up settlement area to have amounted at that time less than one square kilometer.

The 9th Panchen Lama Thubten Choekyi Nyima, who was 1924 initially fled for domestic political reasons from the Central Tibetan city of Shigatse in Inner Mongolia and then to the Qinghai / Amdo, holding on in the hope of a speedy return to Xigaze ( Shigatse ) from 1936 onwards Gyegu, where he died on 1 December 1937.

Earthquake

On April 14, 2010 at 7:49 local time clock, shook a violent earthquake with a magnitude of 7.1 on the Richter scale, the region around Gyegu.

The quake caused numerous victims and put most of the city in ruins: Approx. 80-90 % of the buildings were destroyed, of which especially the simple mud huts of nomads were affected in the outskirts neighborhoods. Their buildings were virtually razed to the ground by the earthquake.

Rebuilding

The end of April / May 2010 it was announced that the city is to be built with funds from the central government within three years as a " Ecotourist City" again.

For this purpose, the State Council for the initial reconstruction phase, the associated support measures that provide with makeshift dwellings, provided a total of over 10 billion yuan by the end of 2010. Total of three times the amount as is provided.

Swell

• A. Gruschke: The Cultural Monuments of Tibet 's Outer Provinces: Kham vol. 2 - The Qinghai Part of Kham ( Yushu Autonomous Prefecture ), Bangkok 2005
• Jörg brush thinners, Andreas Gruschke and Ingo Breuer: regionalization and urbanization in eastern Tibet, in: International Asia Forum, 40 ( 2009), no. 1-2, pp. 119-141.