Thousand Stone Castle Kingdom, Danba | Tibet, China
Thousand Stone Castle Kingdom, Danba | Tibet, China
The county of Danba is located in Tibetan Plateau in western Sichuan, China. Damba means “Rock City”, but it sounds better to call it as the “kingdom of the thousand castles of stone.” This area of Tibetan-speaking hamlets perched stunningly on 8,000-foot-high mountainsides that loom over the town of Danba, has long been a way station on a circuit through the country's southwest, which is home to some of China's most exotic travel destinations. The groups of castles are scattered around strategic positions in the valley or near villages. Towers and citadels were built hundreds of years ago, for defensive purposes and passing messages between different villages. The height of these stone-built military structures is often above 30 meters, while the tallest tower measures 60 meters in height. Looking from afar, the scene of groups of towers and castles standing in the gorgeous Danba valley is breathtaking.
Danba or Rongzhag, is famous for Thousand stone castle kingdom, with many kinds of old stone castles like watchtower, Qionglong in ancient, scattered over the county, built as early as 1700BC. The watch tower in Shuopo village is very varities. There used to be 5,000 watchtowers in Danba, but only 343 that mostly date back 200 to 1,000 years remain. Local inhabitants have a custom of adding one storey to a watchtower to mark each year of a boy's growth until he reaches 18 years old. Usually 30 meters high, Dongba's highest watchtower stands at 60 meters, with four, five, eight or thirteen corners. During Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) wars in the area that lasted for 30 years these watchtowers were a vital aspect of military defense as they could provide human sanctuary for 15 days. The height of watch tower from 16-35meters, they stand on hillsides or the top of hills. The materials for the watch tower as stone slabs for the walls, stone blocks for the foundations. Usually designed as ploygonal shapes, such as square, pentagon, hexagon, and octagon, and the best watch tower is 13-sides watchtower as a pearl in Damba area (only about 3 13-sides watchtowers in Gyarong Tibetan area). 4kinds of Watchtower are protected very well in Rongzhag: Strategic Paas, Bezcon-Fire, Village and Dwelling as its different usage.
The county varies greatly in altitude, from peaks that are as high as 5,820 meters to river valleys as low as 1,700 meters. The Big Jinchuan and small Jinchuan Rivers meet here, marking the beginning of the Dadu River. The green mountains and waters, birds and flowers, is the most brilliant pearl of Kantse. The Tibetan-Gyarong style buildings and watchtowers are surrounded by fields and orchards.
The green mountains and waters, birds and flowers, is the most brilliant pearl of Kantse. The Tibetan-Gyarong style buildings and watchtowers are surrounded by fields and orchards. Danba men are strong and the women are pretty, special in Badi for the Beauty Valley. Stone castles as Thousands Watchtowers of Kingdom with it's various Gyarong folk residence as Jiaju for it famous. The Molto Holy mountains with it's unique Gyarong culture play important roles in Danba county.
The Tibetan-Gyarong style buildings and watchtowers are surrounded by fields and orchards. Danba men are strong and the women are pretty, special in Badi for the Beauty Valley. Stone castles as Thousands Watchtowers of Kingdom with it's various Gyarong folk residence as Jiaju for it famous. The Molto Holy mountains with it's unique Gyarong culture play important roles in Danba county.
Out of Danba. Our first of many stops to take pictures along the way. The scenery over the next 6 hours is simply stunning, as will be the bumpiness of the road.
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A Typical Gyarong Danba Village, China
Heavy rains the night before kept us from visiting the Gyarong village originally scheduled (landslides). Instead, we drove to a more touristy Gyarong village that had guesthouses, restaurants and huge tour buses on the road (including one that almost wiped us out).
The Gyarong people are Tibetan but dress in a completely different manner then the Khampa. It is told that the Khampa slaughtered Gyarong men in battle eons ago and took their women in marriage. The result is a half Tibetan-half Chinese mix.
丹巴清晨 Morning in Danba County (China)
丹巴縣幅員5649平方公里,境內高山對峙,峰巒重疊,峽谷深邃,景色獨特.丹巴縣城位於大渡河畔的章谷鎮,海拔1860米,距州府康定137公里,距成都365公里.全縣總人口6.1萬餘人,轄14個鄉1個鎮,是一個以藏,漢民族為主體的多民族聚居縣.
Danba, Land of Fairy Tale Villages, Sichuan, China
It was beginning to look like rain by the time we arrived in Danba, inhabited by the Gyarong (Jah-row) Tibetans. Checked into the hotel. Discovered the bathroom had the usual leaky toilets, shower and wall pipes - water dripping everywhere - but we've become inured to this.
Instead, Internet was the first priority (almost impossible to find without a guide) followed by dinner (what else). The rains came down and I began to wonder how that was going to affect tomorrow's sightseeing of Danba's fairy tale villages...
Suopo towers (Danba, Sichuan, China)
Suopo towers (Sichuan, China)
Village de Suopo dans le Sichuan Chine
VALPARD FILMS
A Fast Breakfast in Ganzi and The Road to Danba, China
The distance and day from Ganzi to Danba was one of the longer ones into the Eastern Tibetan Plateau. Many stops on very rough roads with heavy traffic. One pause was really interesting. A living Lama was giving a once-a-year speech to the locals along with prayers for good luck. The entire field was filled with the devout Buddhists praying and prostrating.
Closer to Danba, the scenery changed as we drove through a protected area with bear poachers.
Danba Festival 2004.wmv
These photos were taken in august 2004 in Danba, Western Sichuan, China and the surrounding villages of Jiaju and Baidi. This was before Jiaju village was voted China's number 1 most beautiful Village by Chinese National Geographic in 2005. We were the only forgeiners there at the time. It's still a fantastic place. For more go to blog.holachina.net,
Rong brag (Danba) County 44: DB' BO VILLAGE: EULOGIZING DANCE 表演者：敖日村村民
44
དཔའ་བོ་སྡེ་བའི་བསྟོད་བྲོ།
DB' BO VILLAGE: EULOGIZING DANCE (PART 44)
敖日村颂舞（44）
བརྙན་རིས་འདི་ནི་༢༠༡༢ལོའི་བོད་ཀྱི་ལོ་སར་དུ་སི་ཁྲོན་ཞིང་ཆེན་དཀར་མཛེས་བོད་རིགས་རང་སྐྱོང་ཁུལ་ཉིན་དཀར་ཞང་དཔའ་བོ་སྡེ་བ་ནས་གཡུ་འབྲུག་གིས་བསྐྲུན་པ་ཡིན།(གཡུ་འབྲུག་ནི་༡༩༨༥་ལོར་སྐྱེས་པ་ཡིན།)
G.yu 'brug (b. 1985) recorded this video material in 2012 in Db' bo (Aori) Village, Nyin dkar (Neiga) Township, Rong brag (Danba) County, Dkar mdzes (Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, PR China.
本视频录制于2012年，中国四川省甘孜藏族自治州丹巴县聂呷乡敖日村，录制人拥忠（1985年出生）。
དཔའ་བོ་སྡེ་བར་ཁྱིམ་ཚང་༧༠་ཡོད་ལ།དེ་ནི་བོད་ཁྱིམ་༥༢་དང་རྒྱ་ཁྱིམ་༡༨་གིས་གྲུབ་པ་དང་།སྤྱི་སྡོམ་མི་གྲངས་༢༨༧་ཡོད།གནས་གང་གི་ཞིང་ལས་སྐྱེ་དངོས་ནི་སོ་བ་དང་གྲོ་གཡེར་མ།ཞོག་ཁོགམ་རྨོས་ལོ་ཏོག་སྲན་མ་བཅས་ཡིན་ལ།ལྷག་ཏུ་ཀུ་ཤུ་ལི་དང་སྟར་ཀའི་ཐོན་འབོར་ནི་ཤིན་ཏུ་ཆེ་བ་ཡིན།བརྙན་རིས་འདི་ནི་བསྟོད་བྲོ་ཡིན།བཀྲ་ཤིས་པའི་བརྟེན་འབྲེལ་སེམས་ཅན་ཡོངས་སུ་འབུལ།
The village is home to 70 households (52 Tibetan households; 18 Han Chinese households) for a total population of 287. Villagers cultivate barley, potatoes, wheat, peas, prickly ash (Sichuan pepper), apples, English walnuts, pears, and corn. The film includes an eulogizing dance that is danced on auspicious days - it offers auspiciousness to living beings.
敖日宗村有70户人家，其中有52户藏族18户汉族，总人数为287人。当地主要农作物为大麦、小麦、花椒、马铃薯、玉米和豆类，盛产苹果、梨子和核桃。本视频是赞舞，此舞在吉祥的日子里献给所有的生灵.
འཁྲབ་སྟོན་པ།དཔའ་བོ་སྡེ་མི།
Performers: Db' boVillagers
表演者：敖日村村民
SUPPORTED BY FIREBIRD FOUNDATION
Rong brag (Danba) County 30: Nor bu Village: Eulogizing Song 纳布村赞歌
30
ནོར་བུ་སྡེ་བའི་བསྟོད་གླུ།
Nor bu Tibetan Village: Eulogizing Song (Part 30)
纳布村赞歌（30）
བརྙན་རིས་འདི་ནི་༢༠༡༢ལོའི་སི་ཁྲོན་ཞིང་ཆེན་དཀར་མཛེས་བོད་རིགས་རང་སྐྱོང་ཁུལ་རོང་བྲག་རྫོང་མཆོད་རྟེན་སྒང་ཞང་ནོར་བུ་སྡེ་བ་ནས་གཡུ་འབྲུག་གིས་བསྐྲུན་པ་ཡིན། (གཡུ་འབྲུག་ནི་༡༩༨༥་ལོར་སྐྱེས་པ་ཡིན།)
G.yu 'brug (b. 1985) recorded this video material in 2012 in Nor bu (Luobu) Village, Mchod rten sgang (Taipingqiao) Township, Rong brag (Danba) County, Dkar mdzes (Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, PR China.
本视频录制于2012年，中国四川省甘孜藏族自治州丹巴县纳布村，录制人拥忠（1985年出生）。
ནོར་བུ་སྡེ་བར་ཁྱིམ་ཚང་༩༢་ཡོད་ལ།དེ་ནི་བོད་ཁྱིམ༨་དང་ཆའང་ཁྱིམ་༨༤་གིས་གྲུབ་པ་དང་།སྤྱི་སྡོམ་མི་གྲངས་༣༦༠་ཡོད།གནས་གང་གི་ཞིང་ལས་སྐྱེ་དངོས་ནི་སོ་བ་དང་གྲོ་གཡེར་མ།ཞོག་ཁོགམ་རྨོས་ལོ་ཏོགསྲན་མ་བཅས་ཡིན་ལ།ལྷག་ཏུ་ཀུ་ཤུ་ལི་དང་སྟར་ཀའི་ཐོན་འབོར་ནི་ཤིན་ཏུ་ཆེ་བ་ཡིན།བརྙན་རིས་འདི་ནི་ནོར་བུ་སྡེ་བའི་བསྟོད་གླུ་ཡིན།འདི་གླུ་ནི་བརྩེ་སེམས་གྲོགས་པོ་ལ་འབུལ།
The village is home to 92 households (84 Qiang households; 8 Tibetan households) for a total population of 360. Villagers cultivate barley, potatoes, wheat, peas, prickly ash (Sichuan pepper), apples, English walnuts, pears, and corn. The song praises friendship and is sung during parties.
纳布村有92户人家，其中有84户羌族, 8户藏族，总人数为360人。当地主要农作物为大麦、小麦、花椒、马铃薯、玉米和豆类，盛产苹果、梨子和核桃。本视频是赞歌，在聚会时赞美朋友间的友谊之情。
Singers：Yin Zhenghua (b 1940), Wang Zhiqiang (b 1949), Gao Jingui (b 1943)
主要歌唱人员：尹正华 (1940出生) ，王治强 (1949 出生) ，高金贵 (1943 出生)
SUPPORTED BY FIREBIRD FOUNDATION
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It's my first video attempt of this kind so it's not well made, but hopefully you can get more of the atmosphere than just from my photos.
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