Machen

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Anyé Machen

Machen (Tib. རྨ་ཆེན་, Wyl. rma chen, Chin. Chinese 玛沁县), aka Machen Dzong (Tib. རྨ་ཆེན་རྫོང་, Wyl. rma chen rdzong, Chin. Chinese 玛沁县), Maqên or Maqin County, is a county division of Golok.[1].

Located in the southeast of Qinghai Province, China, it is under the administration of Golok Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. The Nyingma has the largest presence in the district with 8 monasteries. The largest and most important monastery is Ragön of the Geluk school with 500 monks. Machen county is a large animal sanctuary with a large area of pastures.

Geography

Position

Ma Chen district occupies the north-central section of the Golok area and shares borders with Tsigor Tang (Tib. རྩི་གོར་ཐང་, Wyl. rtsi gor thang) and Gepa Sumdo (Tib. གད་པ་གསུམ་མདོ་, Wyl. gad pa gsum mdo) in the north, Sokpo (Tib. སོག་པོ་, Wyl. sog po) and Ma Chu (Tib. རྨ་ཆུ་, Wyl. rma chu) in the east, Gadé (Tib. དགའ་བདེ་, Wyl. dga’ bde) and Darlak in the south and Matö (Tib. རྨ་སྟོད་, Wyl. rma stod) in the west. The district is famed as the home of the Anyé Machen Pomra range of mountains which lie in the north-west of the district. [2]

Rivers

The county’s southwestern border is marked by the Ma Chu (Tib. རྨ་ཆུ་, Wyl. rma chu) and also its eastern border is marked by a tributary of the Ma Chu as well. In the west, the Tung Chu (Tib. ཏུང་ཆུ་, Wyl. tung chu) and the Yul Chu (Tib. ཡུལ་ཆུ་, Wyl. yul chu) both join the western branch of the Ma Chu. In the east, the Dug Chu (Tib. དུག་ཆུ་, Wyl. dug chu) flows northwards, joining with the eastern branch of the almighty Ma Chu. [3],

Mountains

  • Anyé Machen Pomra (Tib., Wyl. a mye rma chen spom ra, Ch.) , ‘Snow-capped Mountain’, is located in the mountains of the northeast slope of the Tibetan Highlands, in the headwaters of the Huang He (Yellow River), south of Qinghai Lake. The mountain range consists of three peaks. The main peak of Machen Kangri (Tib. རྨ་ཆེན་གངས་རི། Wyl. rma chen gangs ri, Chin. Maqing Gangri 玛卿岗日) is 6282 m high. For a time, in the first half of the 20th century, it was believed to be the tallest mountain in the world. The Tibetan highlands reach heights of around 4000 meters there, so that the massif only rises about 2000 m above the wider area. The mountain is the most important sacred mountain in eastern Tibet. According to tradition, the mountain deity Magyal Pomra has his residence on the main peak of Machen Kangri. Manchen Pomra is considered one of the most important mountain deities in Tibet and was integrated into the pantheon of Vajrayana protectors. His full name is Anyé Magyal Chenpo Pomra (“the great ancestor Ma-King Pomra”). According to Tibetan Buddhism, the deity dwells in a mighty crystal palace whose foundations reach deep into the earth and whose towers rise to the sun and moon. The horse Droshur carries the god to all corners of the world with the speed of the wind. The sons and daughters of Anyé Machen live on another 18 glaciated peaks over 5000 and 6000 meters respectively. The antagonist of the blessed Anyé Machen is the demonic Anyé Nyenchen. The believers of the Bön religion refer to the tutelary god as Magyal Pomra: for them, he belongs to the four great Nyen, their mountain deities. He rides a lion or a horse.

According to legend, Gesar's miraculous sword lies in the mountain, which will only appear again when King Gesar is reborn as king of Shambhala and defeats evil on earth. This also gave it a special meaning for the former warlike horse nomads of Golok. [4][5], [6]

Climate

Machen has a continental cold climate with great differences between its eastern and western parts. Its north-west is cold and humid, and south-east part gradually changes from cold temperatures to a cold and humid climate. The annual average temperature is low at -3.8 to 3.5℃, temperature, and daily temperature differences are immense. Annual precipitation is between 423-565 mm, mostly in June-September. Annual sunshine time is 2313-2607 hours, which is 45% -63% relative to sunshine. There are no obvious four seasons in a year, and winter is cold and long, lasting as long as eight or nine months. Spring is dry and windy. Summer and autumn are short and rainy, often accompanied by heavy rain and hail. [7]

Cities

The main cities of Machen county are the following:

  • Tawo Shölma (Tib. རྟ་བོ་ཞོལ་མ་, Wyl. rta bo zhol ma, Ch. Xiaduwu 下大武) had a total population of 1,663 people in 2010.[8]
  • Gangri (Tib. གངས་རི་, Wyl. gangs ri, Ch. Xueshan 雪山) had a total population of 1,850 people in 2010.[9]
  • Ragya (Tib. རྭ་རྒྱ་, Wyl. rwa rgya, Ch. Ragya 拉加镇) in 2010 it had a total population of 12,045 people.[10]
  • Tawo (Tib. རྟ་བོ་, Wyl. rta bo, Ch. Dawu 大武) has about 5,150 residents and an elevation of 3,718 metres.[11]
  • Machen (Tib. རྨ་ཆེན་རྫོང་, Wyl. rma chen rdzong, Ch. Maqên 玛沁) has an elevation of 4,696 metres.[12]
  • Yigchung (Tib. དབྱིག་གཞུང་, Wyl. dbyig gzhung, Ch. Youyun 优云) had a total population of 2,865 in 2010. [13], [14]

Dharma

Dharma Lineages

The main tradition lineages practised are those related to:

Main Dharma Places

  • Ragön (Tib. རྭ་དགོན་དགའ་ལྡན་བཀྲ་ཤིས་འབྱུང་གནས་བཤད་སྒྲུབ་དར་རྒྱས་གླིང་, Wyl. rwa dgon dga’ ldan bkra shis ‘byung gnas bshad sgrub dar rgyas gling) has 500 Geluk monks. In Ragya.
  • Mayül Dzogchen (Tib. རྨ་ཡུལ་རྫོགས་ཆེན་དགོན་ཁྲི་དར་རྒྱས་པདྨ་ཐེག་ཆེན་གླིང་, Wyl. rma yul rdzogs chen dgon khri dar rgyas pad+ma theg chen gling) has 150 Nyingma monks. In Tawo.
  • Lhari Tashi Tongdröl Dokanesum Khandrö Entrö (Tib. ལྷ་རི་བཀྲ་ཤིས་མཐོང་གྲོལ་རྡོ་ཁ་གནས་གསུམ་མཁའ་འགྲོའི་དབེན་ཁྲོད་, Wyl. lha ri bkra shis mthong grol rdo kha gnas gsum mkha’ ‘gro’i dben khrod) has 210 Geluk monks. In Tawo.
  • Tokden (Tib. རྟོགས་ལྡན་དགོན་མདོ་སྔགས་བཤད་སྒྲུབ་གླིང་, Wyl. rtogs ldan dgon mdo sngags bshad sgrub gling) has 110 Nyingma monks. In Yingchuk.
  • Trakyog (Tib. ཁྲ་འཁྱོགས་དགོན་དགའ་ལྡན་བཀྲ་ཤིས་ཆོས་འཁོར་གླིང་, Wyl. khra ‘khyogs dgon dga’ ldan bkra shis chos ‘khor gling) has 100 Nyingma monks. In Danglag. [15]

Main Teachers

  • ubten Tsering (Tib. ཐུབ་བསྟན་ཚེ་རིང་, Wyl. thub bstan tshe ring) a contemporary of Dodrupchen and a qualified Dzogchen master. [16]

Notes

  1. ↑ Emeric Yeshe Dorje, The History of the Düdjom Tersar Lineage, Volume 1: “Golok”, forthcoming.
  2. ↑ Stewart Smith, The Monasteries of Amdo, Volume 1: East and South Amdo, 2017, Stewart Smith, p.246-247.
  3. ↑ Emeric Yeshe Dorje, The History of the Düdjom Tersar Lineage, Volume 1: “Golok”, forthcoming.
  4. ↑ https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/A’nyê_Maqên
  5. ↑ https://mapcarta.com/15981556
  6. ↑ https://mapcarta.com/15981556
  7. ↑ https://tibetantrekking.com/amdo-destinations-guide/maqin-county/
  8. ↑ https://mapcarta.com/14905162
  9. ↑ https://mapcarta.com/14905006
  10. ↑ https://mapcarta.com/N3295072675
  11. ↑ https://mapcarta.com/29246598
  12. ↑ https://mapcarta.com/15947864
  13. ↑ Stewart Smith, The Monasteries of Amdo, Volume 1: East and South Amdo, 2017, Stewart Smith, p. 274-275
  14. ↑ https://mapcarta.com/29429056
  15. ↑ Stewart Smith, The Monasteries of Amdo, Volume 1: East and South Amdo, 2017, Stewart Smith, p. 164-165
  16. ↑ Gyurmé Dorjé, Tibet, Footprint, 3rd edition, p. 633.

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