![Bundesarchiv Bild 135-S-12-37-25, Tibetexpedition, Golok Mädchen](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2b/Bundesarchiv_Bild_135-S-12-37-25%2C_Tibetexpedition%2C_Golok_M%C3%A4dchen.jpg)
The Golok or Ngolok (; ) peoples live in
Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai, China around the upper reaches of the
Yellow River
The Yellow River or Huang He (Chinese: , Standard Beijing Mandarin, Mandarin: ''Huáng hé'' ) is the second-longest river in China, after the Yangtze River, and the List of rivers by length, sixth-longest river system in the world at th ...
() and the sacred mountain
Amne Machin (). The Golok were renowned in both Tibet and China as ferocious fighters free from Tibetan and Chinese control.
The Golok are not an homogeneous group but are composed of peoples of very different geographic origins across the
Kham
Kham (; )
is one of the three traditional Tibetan regions, the others being Amdo in the northeast, and Ü-Tsang in central Tibet. The original residents of Kham are called Khampas (), and were governed locally by chieftains and monasteries. Kham ...
s and
Amdo
Amdo ( am˥˥.to˥˥ ) is one of the three traditional Tibetan regions, the others being U-Tsang in the west and Kham in the east. Ngari (including former Guge kingdom) in the north-west was incorporated into Ü-Tsang. Amdo is also the bi ...
region. The Golok was a haven for refugees and immigrants from all over the Amdo and
Kham
Kham (; )
is one of the three traditional Tibetan regions, the others being Amdo in the northeast, and Ü-Tsang in central Tibet. The original residents of Kham are called Khampas (), and were governed locally by chieftains and monasteries. Kham ...
and they are an amalgamation of peoples of diverse origin.
History
The Golok were renowned in both Tibet and China as ferocious fighters free from Tibetan and Chinese control. The name Golok () is sometimes interpreted as meaning "rebellious". A Chinese government document translated Golok as "turned head". Neither Tibet or China was able to subdue them for long.
[Baldizzoni (1994), p. 53.] Legends say they were ruled by a Queen, a reincarnated goddess whose power was handed down from mother to daughter.
The Golog sought to remain ungoverned by any polity, not Tibet, not Qing China. A Golog herder was heard saying in 1908, “We Golog have...from time immemorial obeyed none but our own laws,” A folk song recorded in 1951 asserted, “Against the orders of the Dharma King of Tibet I rebel! Against China I rebel! We make our own laws!”
[Norbu, Namkhai. Journey among the Tibetan Nomads. 3. Dharamsala: Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, 1997.]
Encounter with Tibet
In 1828 when the great mystic and poet of early 19th century Amdo,
Shabkar Tsokdruk Rangdrol, was returning to Amdo from Central Tibet, his caravan, carrying letters of passage from both the
Dalai and
Panchen Lama
The Panchen Lama () is a tulku of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. Panchen Lama is one of the most important figures in the Gelug tradition, with its spiritual authority second only to Dalai Lama. Along with the council of high lamas, he ...
s, was brutally attacked and pillaged by Golok tribesmen. Some months later Shabkar told the
Qinghai
Qinghai (; alternately romanized as Tsinghai, Ch'inghai), also known as Kokonor, is a landlocked province in the northwest of the People's Republic of China. It is the fourth largest province of China by area and has the third smallest po ...
amban
Amban (Manchu language, Manchu and Mongolian language, Mongol: ''Amban'', Standard Tibetan, Tibetan: ་''am ben'', , Uyghur language, Uighur:''am ben'') is a Manchu language term meaning "high official", corresponding to a number of different ...
, who was the senior
Qing
The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speaki ...
administrator in
Xining
Xining (; ), alternatively known as Sining, is the capital of Qinghai province in western China and the largest city on the Tibetan Plateau.
The city was a commercial hub along the Northern Silk Road's Hexi Corridor for over 2000 years, and wa ...
, what had happened. The amban, admitting that the Golok tribes were beyond Imperial control asked Shabkar to try preaching to them in hopes that this might tame them to some extent.
Encounter with China
The Chinese had never been able to control the Goloks before, some areas of which owed allegiance to Labrang, but many others which were completely independent. Occasional ambushes killed soldiers of the
Ninghai Army
The Ninghai Army, later the 26th Division (National Revolutionary Army) was a Muslim Hui army of the Republic of China commanded by General Ma Qi, who controlled the Xining area of Qinghai, then a special region of Gansu province. It was founde ...
, causing loss of dispatches and livestock like yaks. The
Hui
The Hui people ( zh, c=, p=Huízú, w=Hui2-tsu2, Xiao'erjing: , dng, Хуэйзў, ) are an East Asian ethnoreligious group predominantly composed of Chinese-speaking adherents of Islam. They are distributed throughout China, mainly in the n ...
army, with its modern weaponry, retaliated in draconian fashion and exterminated a group of Goloks, and then convoked the Golok tribes for negotiations, only to slaughter them. A Christian missionary, in writing of the Muslim army's extermination of the Goloks as an act of God, wrote of the events of 1921 in the following way:
After Tibetans attacked the Ninghai Muslim army in 1922 and 1923, the Ninghai army returned in 1924 and crushed the Tibetans, killing numerous Tibetans.
Distribution
Their territory is referred in Tibetan as ''smar kog''. The exact boundaries of the historical territory of Golok do not correspond to the boundaries of the modern prefecture. Historically the region knows as Golog included parts of northern
Sichuan
Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of the ...
,
Maqu County
Maqu County (; ) is a county of the Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in the south of Gansu province of the People's Republic of China, bordering the provinces of Sichuan to the east and southeast, and Qinghai to the southwest, west and northwes ...
in
Ganlho Prefecture in
Gansu
Gansu (, ; alternately romanized as Kansu) is a province in Northwest China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeast part of the province.
The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibet ...
, and other places in the traditional Tibetan regions of Amdo and Khams.
Footnotes
References
*Baldizzoni, Tiziana and Gianni (1994). ''Tibet: Journey to the Forbidden City''. White Star S.r.l., Vercelli, Italy. American edition (1996) by Stewart, Tabori & Chang, New York N.Y. .
*Kornman, Robin. (2005) "The Influence of the Epic of King Gesar on Chogyam Trungpa," in ''Recalling Chogyam Trungpa'', edit. Fabrice Midal. Shambhala Publications. Boston. .
*Stein, R. A. (1961): ''Les tribus anciennes des marches sino-tibétaines''. Paris. Presses Universitaires de France.
Further reading
*
External links
*Photos of Golok people
* Thupten Chokor Ling Monastery - The Great Stupa for World Peace
{{Authority control
Tibetan people