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Kyirong Town སྐྱིད་གྲོང་ · 吉隆镇 · केरुङ
Town
Gyirong Town
Kyirong TownLocation in Tibet Automomous Region
Coordinates (Kyirong Town government): 28°23′36″N 85°19′45″E / 28.3933°N 85.3292°E / 28.3933; 85.3292
Country	People's Republic of China
Autonomous region	Tibet
Prefecture-level city	Shigatse
County	Gyirong
Elevation	2,774 m (9,101 ft)

Kyirong or Gyirong (Tibetan: སྐྱིད་གྲོང་, Wylie: skyid grong, THL: kyi rong), Jilong in Chinese (Chinese: 吉隆鎮; pinyin: Jílóng zhèn) and Kerung in Nepalese (Nepali: केरुङ), is a town situated in the southern part of Gyirong County in the Tibet Autonomous Region, China. The town is situated on the east bank of Kyirong Tsangpo, a source stream of the Trishuli River, at an elevation of about 2,700 metres (8,900 ft). It has a subtropical mountain monsoon climate, with reasonable precipitation and warm weather, unusual for Tibet.

Geography

Kyirong Town is located 70 kilometres (43 mi) south of the county seat of Dzongka and roughly 25 km (16 mi) north of Rasuwa Fort on the China-Nepal border where a border crossing into Nepal is located.

In Kyirong Town, there is a village of ethnic Nepali referred to as Daman people. They are descendants of the Nepalese Gurkha army from centuries ago. Previously stateless, they were granted Chinese citizenship in 2003.

History

After the division of the Tibetan Empire, descendants of Songtsen Gampo fled to Kyirong and then founded the Gongtang Kingdom, whose ruins are now in Kyirong.

During the first campaign of the Sino-Nepalese War in the late-1780s, the Nepalese forces captured Kyirong. It was recaptured by joint Chinese and Tibetan forces during the second campaign in July 1792.

Historically, Kyirong Town has been an important town in the cross border trade between China and Nepal as it was located on a major traditional trade thoroughfare between the two countries. In 1961, Kyirong was established as a port of entry from Rasuwa Fort in Nepal by the Chinese government. In December 2014, the Gyirong port of entry was opened to international users and this route between China and Nepal was considered to be more reliable than the one through the Zhangmu-Kodari border crossing.

The April 2015 earthquake

Kyirong/Rasuwa played a minor role as a cross-border trade route until about a year after the April 2015 Nepal earthquake as the cross-border route through the Zhangmu-Kodari border crossing was more badly damaged, only reopening on 29 May 2019. Both corridors sustained quake damage and had been closed due to the collapse of the border bridges at both locations and due to continuing rockfall from unstable hillsides, the Kyirong/Rasuwa crossing being technically easier to re-open.

The Kyirong-Rasuwa Fort route experienced quicker recovery since it is favoured for trans-Himalayan connectivity due to lower elevation and a gentler pass slope. A temporary bridge was constructed in place of the damaged concrete bridge while a new concrete bridge was constructed and opened on 7 June 2019. However, hillside stabilization had yet to be addressed as of Nov 2018 and this was necessary before major infrastructure work could progress. Bridges remained damaged and only recently begun reconstruction. Additionally, transnational electricity projects are expected to pass through the area, although funding is still a question mark and the Nepali government remains cash-strapped and overburdened with competing projects.

References

1. ^ Chan 1994, p. 924.
2. Jackson 1976, p. 44.
3. ^ "Geographical names of Tibet AR (China): Xigazê Prefecture-Level City". KNAB Place Name Database. Institute of the Estonian Language. 2018-06-03.
4. Woebom, Tenzin (2014-12-23). ""Eastern Gypsies": Damans in Tibet". Vtibet. Retrieved 2017-02-13.
5. Boulnois, L. (1989). "Chinese Maps and Prints on the Tibet-Gorkha War of 1788-92". University of Cambridge. p. 92. Retrieved 4 March 2022. In June 1792 the Chinese troops were approaching the border of Nepal. In July ... they recaptured Jilong (Kirong), which the Gorkhas had to evacuate.
6. 李月 (2009-11-04). 西藏吉隆：加速发展的边境小镇 [Gyirong, Tibet: Accelerated Development of the Border Town] (in Chinese (China)). Xinhua News. Archived from the original on 2011-08-18. Retrieved 2011-11-16.
7. ^ Murton, Galen (March 2016). "A Himalayan Border Trilogy: The Political Economies of Transport Infrastructure and Disaster Relief between China and Nepal". Cross-Currents E-Journal. ISSN 2158-9674. Retrieved 2017-02-09. On December 1, 2014, the Sino-Nepal border at Rasuwaghadi was officially opened for commercial business.
8. "Rasuwa-Kerung road spells new heights in trade". Timure. February 17, 2010. Retrieved 2017-02-13. Technically, the Syafrubesi-Rasuwagadhi road is more reliable than the Kodari Highway, said Sitaula.
9. "Kodari Checkpoint To Open Today". The Spotlight Online. 2019-05-29. Retrieved 2019-06-28.
10. ^ Rai, Om Astha. "The Tibet Train". Times of Nepal. Archived from the original on 2020-10-29. Retrieved 2019-07-01.
11. "New China-Nepal friendship bridge comes into operation". Times of India. 2019-06-07. Retrieved 2019-07-01.

Bibliography

• Chan, Victor (1994), Tibet Handbook, Moon Publications – via archive.org
• Dorje, Gyurme (2004), Footprint Tibet Handbook with Bhutan (3rd ed.), Bath: Footprint Handbooks, ISBN 1-903471-30-3 – via archive.org
• Jackson, David P. (1976), "The early history of Lo (Mustang) and Ngari" (PDF), Contributions to Nepal Studies. Journal of the Institute of Nepal and Asian Studies, 4 (1), Kathmandu: Tribhuvan University: 39–56

• Gyirong County
• China–Nepal border crossings