Entering Kham

"Over the liu-liu Paoma Mountain, there is a liu-liu pure white cloud..."

Dear friends, have you ever heard of "The Love Song of Kangding" Do you know this beautiful place? This beautiful place is my hometown -- Kangding. There is a group of warm and simple people here. If you come, you will be entertained hospitably.

Hearing "The Love Song of Kangding," then climbing the imposing Paoma (Running Horse) Mountain will make you forget about going home and feel light-hearted and carefree.

Kham is a magical place. There is quite ancient natural scenery here. You see, Mugecuo (Wild Man Lake), surrounded by green forests and high snow-capped mountains with other interwoven landscapes such as lakes, ancient forests, hot springs, and grasslands, is a special place to travel for sight-seeing, vacationing, rejuvenating, and exploring. It is located 24 kilometers north of Kangding and is part of the Gongga Mountain Scenic Area.

Tagong, located to the northwest of Kangding, has a monastery which is as famous as the Jokhang Monastery in Lhasa. Tagong Monastery is one of the 108 temples built during the reign of Songtsen Gampo in ancient Tibetan times. Inside, there is a sacred statue of a 12-year old Sakyamuni (Buddha) that is said to have been brought by Princess Wenchen on her way to Tibet. It is said that it is as virtuous to worship the Buddha statues in Kham's Tagong Monastery as it is to worship the ones in Lhasa's monasteries. Tagong Monastery collects statues, white towers, other cultural artifacts, and scriptures of the Sakya Buddhist sect that have been used or donated by the most excellent monks of each era. The monastery has been designated by the national government as a key cultural heritage preservation site of Sichuan Province and a national visitor's scenic site.

Enjoy the poetic and picturesque scenery, then come and experience Khampa customs and habits. The Tibetan people are good at dancing and singing. As fresh flowers are never without dewdrops, so the Tibetan people are never without their songs and dances. They use song and dance to communicate their emotions, to express their ideas and wishes, and to convey their happiness and sadness. That is to say, all 15,000 square kilometers of Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture is a dance stage whose curtains never close. You can also say that richly beautiful Ganzi Prefecture is a sea of song and dance. Even on the grasslands, the sheep graze to the tune of Tibetan songs, and in the fields, sweat rolls off the backs of workers as they sing. Warmly gracious Khampa people treat guests as royalty. They will invite you to drink warm yak butter tea and taste mildly sweet barley wine. At night, Khampa people will dance the lovely "Ge Zhuang" dance. It will make you feel at home.

Kham's warmly hospitable Tibetan people will always welcome you.

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See the original, written in Chinese by Mu Wen Ji, Liu Qian, Zhang Jie, and Yang Chao (Junior grade 2, class 2)

Translated into English by Jiang Ling and Synphen Wu

See this page in Tibetan