Banbar County, also known as “Pelbar County“, means “auspicious glory and flames” in Tibetan.
In 1265 AD, in order to further strengthen management of Tibet, Phagpa (Sakya pa Master), the first goverment advisor of Yuan Dynasty(AD1271-AD 1368), returned from Dadu (now Beijing) to Luosuo (now Lhasa) and passed through Xiahewan (now Xialin Village) and put a torch in the soil next to the village, and let a Buddhist temple being built here. After the temple was built, it was named Banbar
Banbar County is a county in Chamdo City, and belongs to the canyon terrain;
It is located in the northeast of Tibet, west of Chamdo and the southern foot of Nyainqentanglha Mountain. The average altitude of Banbar County is 3,500 meters, and the highest altitude is above 5,500 meters; it is more than 400 kilometers away from urban area of Chamdo City and more than 800 kilometers away from Lhasa
Best time to travel July-October
Local climate plateau temperate semi-humid
Most popular sites
Three Color Lakes are Black Lake, White Lake, and Yellow Lake, they are called “Three Color Lake” which are separated by a low mountain platform. All of the three lakes are formed by ice and snow in the low-lying valleys. The total area of the three lakes is about 150,000 square meters, with a water storage capacity of 2.8 million square meters. Among them, the Black Lake is the largest, with an area of about 100,000 square meters and a water volume of 2 million square meters.
Banbar Monastery, located in Xialin Village, Banbar Town, is a Gelug pa monastery of Tibetan Buddhism. It was built in Yuan Dynasty and used to be the seat of Banbar Zong government. Historically, the number of monks in the monastery was about 2500, and the monastery was huge
Dandashan monastery is located on the east side of Xia Gongla of Banbar County. The monastery is Tibetan style structure. There are Chinese inscriptions in the temple, which is with history of 300 years.
Geography and climate
Banbar County is located in the gorge zone of Three Rivers Basin in southeast Tibet. The violent movement of Eurasian plate has caused most of the water sources in Banbar County to split from the mountains and form a high mountain and deep valley.
The terrain is high in south and low in north. The mountains in the territory overlap, the ditch is vertical and horizontal, and the altitude is above 3500-5000 meters.
The climate in Banbar County belongs to the plateau temperate semi-humid climate type. It has the characteristics of low temperature, sufficient sunlight and large daily temperature difference.
The annual extreme minimum temperature is -40℃, and annual average temperature is -1℃. Windy in winter and spring, thunderstorms and hail in summer and autumn, annual frost-free period is below 100 days. Annual precipitation is 600 mm.
Population and ethnicity
As of 2000, the total population of Banbar County was 30,818, of which 92% were Tibetans and 8% were Han and other ethnic minorities.
