Riwoche County

Riwoche (Tibetan: རི་བོ་ཆེ་རྫོང་།; Chinese: 类乌齐县) is a county under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Chamdo in the Tibet Autonomous Region, China. The county lies in eastern Tibet and borders Qinghai province to the north.

Riwoche 类乌齐县 • རི་བོ་ཆེ་རྫོང་། Riwoqê
County
Location of Riwoqê County within Tibet
Riwoche Location of the seat in the Tibet AR Show map of Tibet Riwoche Riwoche (China) Show map of China
Coordinates (Riwoqê County government): 31°12′42″N 96°36′01″E
Country	China
Autonomous region	Tibet
Prefecture-level city	Chamdo
County seat	Sado
Area
• Total	6,337.93 km2 (2,447.09 sq mi)
Population  (2020)[1]
• Total	58,856
• Density	9.3/km2 (24/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+8 (China Standard)
Website	leiwuqi.changdu.gov.cn

Riwoche County
Chinese name
Simplified Chinese	类乌齐县
Traditional Chinese	類烏齊縣
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Lèiwūqí Xiàn
Tibetan name
Tibetan	རི་བོ་ཆེ་རྫོང་།
Transcriptions Wylie ri bo che rdzong Tibetan Pinyin Riwoqê Zong

Riwoche is the name of the county, the county capital, and the small village where the main monastery is located. Riwoche sits at around 3,400 m (11,200 ft) above sea level. The Dzi River flows through the region. The county grows barley and wheat. Khampa inhabitants of the area lives in houses made of wood. The area is highly mountainous, and in contrast to the high altitude grasslands predominant in Tibetan Plateau, Riwoche is lush all year round with evergreen forests. Riwoche's climate is mild by Tibetan standards, with daytime high temperatures generally above −4 °C (25 °F) in winter and 20 °C (68 °F) in summer.^[2]

Administrative divisions

Riwoche County is divided in 2 towns and 8 townships.

Name	Chinese	Hanyu Pinyin	Tibetan	Wylie
Town
Riwoche Town (Riwoqê)	类乌齐镇	Lèiwūqí zhèn	རི་བོ་ཆེ་གྲོང་རྡལ།	ri bo che grong rdal
Sado Town (Samdo)	桑多镇	Sāngduō zhèn	ས་མདོ་གྲོང་རྡལ།	sa mdo grong rdal
Townships
Jagsamka Township	甲桑卡乡	Jiǎsāngkǎ xiāng	ལྕགས་ཟམ་ཁ་ཤང་།	lcags zam kha shang
Chamoling Township	长毛岭乡	Chángmáolǐng xiāng	ཁྲ་མོ་གླིང་ཤང་།	khra mo gling shang
Kangda Township	岗色乡	Gǎngsè xiāng	གངས་གཟེ་ཤང་།	gangs gze shang
Jigdoi Township	吉多乡	Jíduō xiāng	ལྗིག་སྟོད་ཤང་།	ljig stod shang
Pênda Township	宾达乡	Bīndá xiāng	བེའུ་མདའ་ཤང་།	be'u mda' shang
Karmardo Township	卡玛多乡	Kǎmǎduō xiāng	མཁར་དམར་མདོ་ཤང་།	mkhar dmar mdo shang
Samka Township	尚卡乡	Shàngkǎ xiāng	ཟམ་ཁ་ཤང་།	zam kha shang
Yeru Township	伊日乡	Yīrì xiāng	གཡས་རུ་ཤང་།	g.yas ru shang

Climate

Climate data for Riwoche, elevation 3,810 m (12,500 ft), (1991–2020 normals, extremes 1981–2010)
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Record high °C (°F)	17.2 (63.0)	16.2 (61.2)	20.0 (68.0)	22.6 (72.7)	24.4 (75.9)	28.0 (82.4)	28.7 (83.7)	26.4 (79.5)	24.7 (76.5)	22.8 (73.0)	17.0 (62.6)	16.2 (61.2)	28.7 (83.7)
Mean daily maximum °C (°F)	3.9 (39.0)	5.6 (42.1)	8.3 (46.9)	11.8 (53.2)	16.0 (60.8)	19.3 (66.7)	20.2 (68.4)	19.8 (67.6)	17.9 (64.2)	13.0 (55.4)	8.3 (46.9)	5.9 (42.6)	12.5 (54.5)
Daily mean °C (°F)	−6.4 (20.5)	−3.8 (25.2)	−0.1 (31.8)	3.6 (38.5)	7.7 (45.9)	11.4 (52.5)	12.6 (54.7)	11.9 (53.4)	9.6 (49.3)	4.4 (39.9)	−1.6 (29.1)	−1.1 (30.0)	4.0 (39.2)
Mean daily minimum °C (°F)	−14.7 (5.5)	−11.6 (11.1)	−6.9 (19.6)	−2.7 (27.1)	1.3 (34.3)	5.7 (42.3)	7.4 (45.3)	6.7 (44.1)	4.2 (39.6)	−1.3 (29.7)	−8.6 (16.5)	−13.6 (7.5)	−2.8 (26.9)
Record low °C (°F)	−25.9 (−14.6)	−29.4 (−20.9)	−23.7 (−10.7)	−12.1 (10.2)	−9.2 (15.4)	−3.5 (25.7)	−1.8 (28.8)	−3.2 (26.2)	−5.7 (21.7)	−13.0 (8.6)	−23.0 (−9.4)	−28.6 (−19.5)	−29.4 (−20.9)
Average precipitation mm (inches)	2.7 (0.11)	7.0 (0.28)	14.1 (0.56)	31.0 (1.22)	53.2 (2.09)	110.5 (4.35)	132.0 (5.20)	126.8 (4.99)	95.2 (3.75)	38.2 (1.50)	7.7 (0.30)	1.7 (0.07)	620.1 (24.42)
Average precipitation days (≥ 0.1 mm)	3.3	5.2	9.5	13.3	14.9	19.6	21.0	19.5	17.7	10.8	4.5	2.2	141.5
Average snowy days	5.1	8.1	14.0	16.9	7.0	0.8	0.1	0.2	0.8	9.7	7.4	4.0	74.1
Average relative humidity (%)	44	46	50	56	58	64	69	71	70	64	54	47	58
Mean monthly sunshine hours	207.0	180.0	187.3	182.4	197.4	170.7	172.4	167.1	160.6	178.3	201.8	216.6	2,221.6
Percentage possible sunshine	64	57	50	47	46	40	40	41	44	51	64	69	51
Source: China Meteorological Administration[3][4]

Attractions

Yiri Hot Spring is located at Riwoqê County, surrounded by the hills, is a famous hot spring which is reputed to cure diseases.^[5]

Riwoche is also home to the famous Riwoche Monastery, the main set of the Taklung Kagyu,^[6] situated 29 km north of the Riwoche Town, and 134 km west of Chamdo.^[7]

Jiumichan Monastery is within Riwoqê County, 105 km away from the county seat, is a national key scenic spot.^[8]

Naitang Monastery is located at Riwoqê County, with Dingxia Mountain on the back, Naishui River in the front, and Duoji Cliff on the north. Buddhists thought it as the holy land of Ruchi 16 Arhats, called it Naitang Monastery.^[9]

Riwoche horses

Riwoche is also known for a unique horse breed called Riwoche horses, thought to be the missing link between modern horses and prehistoric horses after ground-breaking research in 1995.^{[10][11][12][13][14][15][16]}

Transportation

• China National Highway 214
• China National Highway 317

See also

• Bangru (village)