Manigango

Manigango Township is a town under jurisdiction of Dege County. It covers an area of 617 square kilometers. It is dominated by animal husbandry, mainly raising yaks and sheep.

Manigango means “place of prayer” in Tibetan. Tibetans holding prayer wheels can be seen everywhere in this town

It is located in southeast of and about 115 kilometers west of Dege County, 220 kilometers north of Sershul County, 364 kilometers away from Yushu City, 95 kilometers east of Garze County, and 798 kilometers away from provincial capital Chengdu.

Manigango is indeed in the bottom of a very large valley juntion, which several valleys joint each other at here that naturally forming up this traffic hub. No. 317 National Highways connecting Dege County and Garze County in Dege County, and No. 217 Provincial Highways passing by.

Manigango Township is at the edge of the grassland near Trola Mountain, and about 23 kilometers east of this wild-west like township, a jeep-able road leads to the Yi-chu valley, via a side bridge northward to Yilhun township, where one small but very authentic Tibetan Horse-racing festival is held annually on a wide open grassland below the local monastery Yazer Gompa and village in August

It is an important transportation hub on the northern Sichuan-Tibet line. It was also an important market town for ancient Tibetan commerce in Yunnan, Qinghai, and Sichuan, that is, the ancient tea-horse trading route.

Dzogchen monastery, one of the 6 great Nyingma pa monastery, is located some 50 km west of Manigango after Haizi pass (4800 meter);

Best time to travel From July to September

Local climate Subtropical monsoon climate

Most popular sites

Xinluhai lake, also known as “Yilhun Lhatso Lake” in Tibetan, is located at the foot of Trola (Que’er) Mountain in Dege County by the road of Sichuan-Tibet Highway, 108 kilometers away from Garze County and 102 kilometers away from Derge County.

“Yulhun” is the compliment of the beautiful wife of King Gesar; “Lhatso” means the holy lake. It has an altitude of 4,040 meters and an average depth of 10 meters, the deepest is about 15 meters away. The water source is supplied by Trola Mountain glacier and snow melt. The stream flowing out of the lake is one of sources of Cuo-chu River.

Population and ethnicity

The total population of Manigango Town is about 2,000 people. Tibetan account 98% of its total population, other ethnic groups include Han, Zhuang, Miao, Hui and Mongolian.

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How to get to Manigango

Garze Gesar Airport should be the nearest airport to Manigango, which is about 40 kilometers eastward, and one hour drive is needed to cover this distance;

Since Manigango is very small, there is no direct bus to this town, but there are buses passing through Manigago, and then onward to the next destination; it is OK to choose buying the tickets on the routes from Kangding to Derge, or Garze to Derge, or Garze to Yushu, and to reach Manigango

Distance from Manigango To

• Xinlu Lake (Yulhun Lhatso lake) : 13 kilometers
• Mt Tro La Pass : 40 kilometers
• Mt Haizi Pass : 35 kilometers
• Dzogchen monastery : 51 kilometers, about 2 hours’ drive
• Shechen monastery : 74 kilometers, about 2.5 hours’ drive
• Garze (Kanze ) County : 95 kilometers, about 2 hours’ drive
• Derge County : 115 kilometers, about 2 hours’ drive
• Sershul County : 220 kilometers, about 5.5 hours’ drive

Brief history

In 1959, Manigango Town was established, which was divided from Yulong Township

In 1974, Manigango Town was changed to Manigango Commune,

In 1984, Manigango Town was restored.

In 2020, Wogong Town was abolished, and its administrative was placed under jurisdiction of Manigango Town