Kokyar (Kɵkyar, Көкяр, كۆكيار, Kök-yar, Kök-yār, ,

Pinyin Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally writte ...

: Kùkèyá; , ''Kēkèyà Xiāng'') is a township headquartered at a small oasis at the base of the Kunlun Mountains in southern

Kargilik County Kargilik County ( transliterated from ; ); from Mandarin Chinese Yecheng County (), is a county in southwest of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and is under the administration of the Kashgar Prefecture. It contains an area of 28,600 km ...

, Kashgar Prefecture, southwestern

Xinjiang Xinjiang, SASM/GNC: ''Xinjang''; zh, c=, p=Xīnjiāng; formerly romanized as Sinkiang (, ), officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwest ...

, China.

History

In 1958, Kokyar Commune () was established. In 1985, Kokyar Commune became Kokyar Township. On July 6, 2016, a massive landslide killed thirty-five residents from village 6 in Kokyar Township, around from the county seat. It took several days for rescue operations to reopen the road into the village. 352 residents were relocated. In 2016-2017, Akemeiqite village (阿克美其特村) was disestablished and Nu'er'abati () was established, Amanxia (阿曼夏村) was disestablished and Halasitan village () was established, and Muchang village () was established. In 2019, a cooperative farm () was established in Halasitan village ().

Geography

Kokyar is a small oasis, only about south of Karghalik, with cultivation limited to: :". . . a narrow strip of ground less than half a mile across and under five miles in length, enclosed between absolutely barren slopes at the bottom of a narrow valley. The people, reckoned at about two hundred households, depend largely for their sustenance on cattle and sheep kept far away in the mountains. Nor is the configuration of the valley such that a much extended cultivation can be assumed even for an earlier period when a moister climate prevailed." Kokyar was the first oasis reached in the

Taklamakan The Taklimakan or Taklamakan Desert (; zh, s=塔克拉玛干沙漠, p=Tǎkèlāmǎgān Shāmò, Xiao'erjing: , dng, Такәламаган Шамә; ug, تەكلىماكان قۇملۇقى, Täklimakan qumluqi; also spelled Taklimakan and Te ...

basin after travelling the winter route north from the

Karakoram Pass The Karakoram Pass () is a mountain pass between India and China in the Karakoram Range. It is the highest pass on the ancient caravan route between Leh in Ladakh and Yarkand in the Tarim Basin. 'Karakoram' literally means 'Black Gravel' ...

via Bazar Dara or from northern

Hunza Valley The Hunza Valley ( bsk, , Wakhi: '; ur, ) is a mountainous valley in the northern part of the Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan, formed by the Hunza River, bordering Ishkoman to the northwest, Shigar to the southeast, Afghanistan's Wa ...

to Yarkand along the frozen

Yarkand River The Yarkand River (or Yarkent River, Yeh-erh-ch'iang Ho) is a river in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of western China. It originates in the Siachen Muztagh in a part of the Karakoram range and flows into the Tarim River or Neinejoung R ...

. To the north, Kokyar Township borders

Kargilik Town Kargilik or Karghalik or Yecheng in Chinese, is a town in Xinjiang, China. It is to the southeast of Kashgar, at a distance of 249 km by road and is north of Mazar by 249 km.Dorje (2009), p. 453. It is the seat of Kargilik (Yecheng) County. Karg ...

(Kageleke, Qaghiliq), to the east Ushsharbash Town (Wuxiabashi), and to the west Chipan Township (Qipan). The average altitude in the township is between and above sea level.

Administrative divisions

, Kokyar Township includes eighteen

villages A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

divided into four areas () (''

Mandarin Chinese Mandarin (; ) is a group of Chinese (Sinitic) dialects that are natively spoken across most of northern and southwestern China. The group includes the Beijing dialect, the basis of the phonology of Standard Chinese, the official language ...

pinyin Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally writte ...

-derived names except where noted''): Areas (): * Kekeya (), Momuke (), Guosasi (), Xihefu () Villages (): * Ying'awati () * Kekeya () * Outunsu / Otan-su / Otansu () * Pusa () * Nu'er'abati () * Yusaisi () * Ta'er'agezi () * Guosasi () * Aqikebailedu'er () * Kalayoulegun () * Momuke () * Dunzila () * Yusilüshi () * Halasitan () * Igizya (Yigeziya; / ) * Awatibage () * Yanbuke () * Muchang () As of 2009, there were seventeen villages in Kokyar: *Ying'awati (英阿瓦提村), Kekeya (柯克亚村), Outunsu (欧吞苏村), Pusa (普萨村), Akmeqit / Akemeiqite (阿克美其特村) , Yusaisi (玉赛斯村), Ta'er'agezi (塔尔阿格孜村), Guosasi (果萨斯村), Aqikebailedu'er (阿其克拜勒都尔村), Kalayoulegun (喀拉尤勒滚村), Momuke (莫木克村), Dunzila (墩孜拉村), Yusilüshi (玉斯吕什村), Amanxia (阿曼夏村) , Yigeziya (依格孜亚村), Awatibage (阿瓦提巴格村), Yanbuke (颜布克村)

Demographics

, 96.9% of the residents of Kokyar Township were Uyghur. Some Mountain Tajiks (China) live in Kokyar Township.

Economy

There are orchards containing apricot, mulberry and other fruit trees and fields of wheat and oats and stands of willow and poplar trees. The people produce excellent felts which are famous throughout

Turkestan Turkestan, also spelled Turkistan ( fa, ترکستان, Torkestân, lit=Land of the Turks), is a historical region in Central Asia corresponding to the regions of Transoxiana and Xinjiang. Overview Known as Turan to the Persians, western Turk ...

which obviously contribute significantly to the economy. The people speak 'Taghlik' or "hill Turki" ( Uyghur). There are many long-lived trees in the area. As of 2015, persons engaged in agriculture made up 93.1% of the population of the township and there was 16,800 '' mu'' of

arable land Arable land (from the la, arabilis, "able to be ploughed") is any land capable of being ploughed and used to grow crops.''Oxford English Dictionary'', "arable, ''adj''. and ''n.''" Oxford University Press (Oxford), 2013. Alternatively, for th ...

. Kokyar (Kekeya) Oil and Gas Field was discovered in the 1970s.

Transportation

China National Highway 219 China National Highway 219 (G219; Chinese: '' Guódào219'') is a highway which runs along the entire western and southern border of the People's Republic of China, from Kom-Kanas Mongolian ethnic township in Xinjiang to Dongxing in Guangxi. ...

Historical maps

Historical English-language maps including Kokyar: File:Xinjiang 1759 - 15.jpg, Map including Kokyar (labeled as ) (c. 1759) File:Txu-oclc-6654394-nj-43-5th-ed.jpg, Map including Kokyar (labeled as K'u-k'u-ya) from the

International Map of the World The International Map of the World or IMW (also called the Millionth Map of the World, after its scale of 1:1 000 000) was a project to create a complete map of the world according to internationally agreed standards. It was first proposed by th ...

( AMS, 1966) File:NJ-43-12 Yeh-ch'eng, China.jpg, Map including Kokyar (labeled as K'u-k'u-ya) ( ACIC, 1969) File:Operational Navigation Chart G-7, 6th edition.jpg, From the Operational Navigation Chart; map including Kokyar (K'u-k'o-ya) ( DMA, 1980) File:Txu-pclmaps-oclc-22834566 g-7a.jpg, Map including Kokyar (K'u-k'o-ya) ( DMA, 1984)