Zhêntang Town (; ), also known as Chentang, is a town in

Dinggyê County Dinggyê County (, zh, s=定结县) is a county of the Xigazê city in the Tibet Autonomous Region, China, bordering Nepal's Sankhuwasabha and Taplejung Districts to the south and India's Sikkim Sikkim ( ; ) is a States and union territ ...

, in the

Shigatse Shigatse, officially known as Xigazê () or Rikaze ( zh, s=日喀则, p=Rìkāzé), is a prefecture-level city of the Tibet Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China. Its area of jurisdiction, with an area of , corresponds to the histo ...

prefecture-level city of the

Tibet Autonomous Region The Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), often shortened to Tibet in English or Xizang in Pinyin, Hanyu Pinyin, is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People's Republic of China. It was established in 1965 to replace the ...

of China. It is a border town on the

China–Nepal border The China–Nepal border is the international boundary between the Tibet Autonomous Region of the China, People's Republic of China and Nepal, Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal. It is in length and runs in a northwest–southeast direction ...

and lies on the Pum Qu River. At the time of the 2010 census, the town had a population of 2,043. , it had 6 communities under its administration.

People

Most of the population of the vicinity are

Sherpa people The Sherpa people () are one of the Nepalese ethnic groups native to the most mountainous regions of Nepal, India, and the Tibetan Autonomous Region of China. The majority of Sherpas live in the eastern regions of Nepal, namely the Solukhum ...

. Due to the fact that Sherpa is not one of the recognized

ethnic minorities in China Ethnic minorities in China are the non-Han Chinese, Han population in the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). The PRC officially recognizes 55 ethnic minority groups within China in addition to the Han majority. , the combined population ...

, they are classified as "

Others Others or The Others may refer to: Fictional characters * Others (''A Song of Ice and Fire''), supernatural creatures in the fictional world of George R. R. Martin's fantasy series ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' * Others (''Lost''), mysterious inh ...

" on their citizenship. However, Sherpa is stated as part of their

household registration Civil registration is the system by which a government records the vital events (births, marriages, and deaths) of its citizens and residents. The resulting repository or database has different names in different countries and even in differe ...

. Many locals cultivate

finger millet Finger millet (''Eleusine coracana'') is an Annual plant, annual herbaceous plant widely grown as a cereal crop in the arid and Semi-arid climate, semiarid areas in Africa and Asia. It is a tetraploid and Self-pollination, self-pollinating speci ...

using terraces on the slopes for produce, which can be used to make

Chhaang Chhaang or chhyang (, , ) is a Nepalese and Tibetan alcoholic beverage popular in parts of the eastern Himalayas among the Yakkha, Limbu, Dura, Newar, Sunuwar, Rai, Bhutia, Gurung, Magar, Sherpa, Tamang, Tharus and Lepcha communities. Amon ...

, an alcoholic beverage popular in the region. Many of the families in valley have two homes — one for the

growing season A season is a division of the year marked by changes in weather, ecology, and the amount of daylight. The growing season is that portion of the year in which local conditions (i.e. rainfall, temperature, daylight) permit normal plant growth. Whi ...

high up on the slopes, the other in the valley to shelter through the colder winter. The Sherpas in the region are considered to be good dancers, with similarities to many ethnic groups in Nepal. Most of the locals practice

Buddhism Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

. There is an elementary school in the township. However, children would need to go to Dinggyê County for boarding middle school and Shigatse prefecture for boarding high school.

Border

The bordering Nepalese town is Kimathanka. The border was part of brief dispute between China and Nepal before 1960. The dispute was resolved in their 1961 border agreement. There is small scale local trade. The local cross-border trade has gotten so important in the recent decades that in 2008 when Chinese tightened its border control during the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fro ...

, the bordering Nepalese towns faced food shortages due to disruption of local trade. A Chinese border checkpoint was set up in 2011 checking border crossing permits of Nepalese. In 2015, there were recorded 7700 border crossings and the annual trade at this port was valued at .

References

{{China–Nepal border crossings Township-level divisions of Tibet Populated places in Shigatse China–Nepal border crossings