Kingdom of Chakla (; ) or Chala was a kingdom in the

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa, Taman ...

an region of

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 ...

. Chakla along with Bathang,

Lithang Litang (; ) is in southwest of Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan, China. Litang is part of Kham in the Tibetan cultural zone, and several famous Buddhist figures were born here, including the 7th Dalai Lama, the 10th Dalai Lama, t ...

, and

Derge Derge (; ) is a town in Dêgê County in Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan, China. It was once the center of the Kingdom of Derge in Kham. History Historically, Derge, which means "land of mercy", was an important centre of Tibeta ...

were called the "Four Great Native Chiefdom in

" (康区四大土司) by Chinese. The kingdom was located in the eponymous Chakla region, near the historical border between

and

China proper China proper, Inner China, or the Eighteen Provinces is a term used by some Western writers in reference to the "core" regions of the Manchu-led Qing dynasty of China. This term is used to express a distinction between the "core" regions popu ...

. By the late 1200s, it had been founded around the city of

Dartsedo Kangding (), also called Tachienlu and Dartsedo (; ), is a county-level city and the seat of Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan province of Southwest China. Kangding is on the bank of the Dadu River and has been considered the histo ...

, now known as Kangding. Due to its position, the town formed a trading centre for merchants from Tibet and China proper, who traded goods such as tea, traditional medicines, horses, and paper; for this reason the

Ganden Phodrang The Ganden Phodrang or Ganden Podrang (; ) was the Tibetan system of government established by the 5th Dalai Lama in 1642; it operated in Tibet until the 1950s. Lhasa became the capital of Tibet again early in this period, after the Oirat l ...

government established a taxation regime in the kingdom, headed by a commissioner. The local kings resented the taxation coming from Lhasa, resulting in a rebellion in 1666, backed up by Chakla allying with the emerging

Qing dynasty 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 ...

. Ganden Phodrang forces invaded five years later, followed by the murder of the king of Chakla by the commissioner in 1699. However, a year later, the commissioner was killed himself by Qing forces, who reorganised their Tibetan provinces in 1725, removing Chakla from Ganden Phodrang rule. The Kingdom of Chakla was annexed by

in 1911;

Zhao Erfeng Zhao Erfeng (1845–1911), courtesy name Jihe, was a late Qing Dynasty official and Han Chinese bannerman, who belonged to the Plain Blue Banner. He was an assistant amban in Tibet at Chamdo in Kham (eastern Tibet). He was appointed in March, ...

forced the king to abdicate. However, ruler of Chakla had high prestige in

Xikang Xikang (also Sikang or Hsikang) was a nominal province formed by the Republic of China in 1939 on the initiative of prominent Sichuan warlord Liu Wenhui and continued by the early People's Republic of China. Thei idea was to form a single unifi ...

and the Republican Chinese government had to allow them to restore him. Finally, the kingdom was annexed by the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

in 1950.

Notes

References

{{Reflist History of Tibet Kham States and territories established in 1407 States and territories disestablished in 1950 Tusi