Amdo

The Amdo (Tibetan: has mdo , Chinese: 安多, Pinyin: Ānduō) is one of the three traditional provinces of the Tibet, the others being U-Tsang and Kham. It is from there that current the Dalai Lama comes. It is located at the North-East of Lhassa and it includes the major part of the province of the Qinghai, like areas smaller, but culturally important, in the provinces of the Gansu and the Sichuan.

Amdo, like each of the three areas which forms Tibet, speaks its own distinctive dialect about the Tibetan. Amdo is also known in Tibetan under the name of Dotoh.

History

Amdo was conquered by the Mandchou in 1724 following victory over a Mongolian revolt. The north-eastern part of Amdo was seized by the military chief My Bufang in 1928. My Bufang belonged to the Moslem minority Hui.

In September 1965, the areas Tibetans are redefined and incorporated in Chinese provinces. Thus, the totality of Amdo is annexed to the Chinese provinces close to the Qinghai and the Gansu while an important part of the Kham is incorporated in the Sichuan and with the Yunnan. The remaining part of Tibet, made up of the U-Tsang and a small portion of the Kham was called, by the Chinese authorities “Autonomous region of Tibet”. Today China refers only to this area when she speaks about the Tibet.

Culture and religion

The cultural sphere of Amdo one of most important and is diversified on the high plateau of the Tibet. The dialect of Amdo is one of the principal dialects of the language Tibetan. The inhabitants do not name Böpa (bod Pa), the normal Tibetan nomination according to the government of Lhassa, but Amdowa (mdo Pa has).

Amdo is the fatherland of several important monks of Buddhism Tibetan, of spangled, who were of great influence on the religious and political development of whole Tibet - as the large reformer Tsongkhapa, the the 14th Dalai Lama and the 10th Panchen LAMA.

This is why Amdo is an enamelled area of a great number of Buddhist monasteries, especially of Gelugpa - with, for example, Kumbum Jampa Ling (Chin. Ta' er If) close to Xining, Qutan If and Labrang Tashi Khyil in the south of Lanzhou in Gansu cash among the most important monasteries of the sphere Tibetan.

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