# Jonê County

Jonê County (also Cone, Chone, Choni; Tibetan: ཅོ་ནེ་རྫོང་།, Wylie: co-ne rdzong, ZYPY: Jonê Zong; local pronunciation: /tɕɔ$^L$nɛ/; Chinese: 卓尼县; pinyin: Zhuōní Xiàn) is a county in the Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Gansu Province, China. Its postal code is 747600. Its area is 4,954 km$^2$ (1,913 sq mi), and its population is over 100,000 people. It is administered from Liulin.

## Description

The county covers both banks of the middle section of the Lu-chu. The country town and adjacent Jonê Monastery are on the north bank. The side valleys on the southern side used to be branches of the ancient kingdom of Jonê.

## Historical Tibetan Jonê Kingdom

Among Tibetan at Amdo, Jonê exist the Jonê Kingdom (Tibetan: ཅོ་ནེ་དཔོན་པོ, Wylie: co-ne-dpon-po, Chinese: 卓尼土司; pinyin: Zhuóní Tǔsī), ruled by the Tibetan Ga clan or Mandarin Chinese Yang (杨) clan, was a Tusi chiefdom kingdom called Zhouni Kingdom, Choni Kingdom, or Jonê Kingdom ruled by the Gatsang (dga' tshang) family at Tibet. In 1404, whereupon they informed the Ming Emperor Yongle of this fact and were recognized as local rulers, and were given a seal of authority and the surname Yang (杨). The Yangs ruled Jonê from 1404 until 1949.

## List of Kings of Jonê

There are list kings of Jonê Kingdom:
* ཅོ་ནེ་རྒྱལ་པོ་ཤིས་བསྡུས།
* ཅོ་ནེ་རྒྱལ་པོ་བཙན་པོ།
* ཅོ་ནེ་རྒྱལ་པོ་བཀྲ་ཤིས།
* ཅོ་ནེ་རྒྱལ་པོ་དགའ་སྐྱེད།
* ཅོ་ནེ་རྒྱལ་པོ་དབང་ཕྱུག named 杨洪; Yáng Hóng
* ཅོ་ནེ་རྒྱལ་པོ་ཡང་དྲིན། named 杨臻; Yáng Zhēn
* ཅོ་ནེ་རྒྱལ་པོ་ཡང་ཚེ་མེས། named 杨葵明; Yáng Kuímíng
* ཅོ་ནེ་རྒྱལ་པོ་ཡང་གོ་ལུང་། named 杨国龙; Yáng Guólóng
* ཅོ་ནེ་རྒྱལ་པོ་ཚེ་དབང་དོན་གྲུབ། named 杨朝梁; Yáng Cháoliáng
* ཅོ་ནེ་རྒྱལ་པོ་བློ་བཟང་དོན་གྲུབ། named 杨威; Yáng Wēi
* ཅོ་ནེ་རྒྱལ་པོ་མང་སྲོལ་མགོན་པོ། named 杨汝松; Yáng Rǔsōng
* ཅོ་ནེ་རྒྱལ་པོ་འཇམ་དབྱངས་ནོར་བུ། named 杨冲霄; Yáng Chōngxiāo
* ཅོ་ནེ་རྒྱལ་པོ་བསོད་ནམས་ཆོས་འཕེལ། named 杨昭; Yáng Zhāo
* ཅོ་ནེ་རྒྱལ་པོ་བསྟན་སྲུང་ཚེ་རིང་། named 杨声; Yáng Shēng
* ཅོ་ནེ་རྒྱལ་པོ་བསྟན་འཛིན་རིན་ཆེན་ཆོས་སྐྱབས། named 杨宗业; Yáng Zōngyè
* ཅོ་ནེ་རྒྱལ་པོ་ཆོས་སྐྱབས་འགྱུར་མེད་རྡོ་རྗེ། named 杨宗基; Yáng Zōngjī
* ཅོ་ནེ་རྒྱལ་པོ་རིན་ཆེན་བསྟན་འཛིན་འཕྲིན་ལས་རྡོ་རྗེ། named 杨元; Yáng Yuán
* ཅོ་ནེ་རྒྱལ་པོ་ཚེ་དབང་བསོད་ནམས་རྡོ་རྗེ། named 杨作霖; Yáng Zuòlín
* ཅོ་ནེ་རྒྱལ་པོ་བློ་བཟང་བསྟན་འཛིན་རྣམ་རྒྱལ་རྡོ་རྗེ། named 杨积庆; Yáng Jīqìng
* ཅོ་ནེ་རྒྱལ་པོ་པད་མ་དབང་ཕྱུག named 杨复兴; Yáng Fùxīng

## History

    "There are traditions of Tibetan soldiers left behind [after the late 10th century] at several border outposts, such as Jonê, where they established viable settlements, and of the remaining Tibetan conscript troops, called the Wun Mo, carving out considerable territory for themselves until they were perhaps absorbed into that amalgam of people of Tibetan stock, which came to form the Hsi Hsia Kingdom (982—1224)."
Jonê was part of a separate kingdom formed, according to legend, after its invasion by warriors who migrated across the mountains from Sichuan conquering the local tribes in 1404. The contemporary descendants of the Jonê royal line claim that their line is Tibetan, and that their ancestors migrated from central Tibet through Sichuan.
The Yongle Emperor (May 2, 1360 – August 12, 1424) named one of these invading warriors hereditary chief (tusi) called Zhouni Tusi (卓尼土司), bestowing the family name of "Yang" ("杨") and an imperial seal upon his line. The Jonê king (co-ne rgyal-po) established a palace on the north bank of the Tao River. The family holding the Yang seal continued to rule over 48 Tibetan clans in Jonê as an autonomous kingdom from the early 15th century for 23 generations, until 1928, when it was placed under the control of the Lanzhou government. In the late Qing Dynasty and Republican Period, many nomadic regions had considerable de facto independence, despite the claims and perspective of the Chinese rulers.
Among the six monasteries in the county, all of them Tibetan Geluk establishments, is the great Jonê Monastery.
The American botanist Joseph Rock spent almost 2 years in Jonê ("Choni", in his spelling) in 1925–26. He resided in the compound of the local chief (the 19th-generation tusi Yang Jiqing (杨积庆)), making it the base for his exploration of southern Gansu and eastern Qinghai. His account of the culture of this "almost unknown Tibetan principality", as he described it, illustrated with color photographs, was published in the National Geographic.
As of 2012, Jonê was apparently closed to foreign visitors.

## Administrative divisions

Jonê County is divided to 11 towns, 3 townships and 1 ethnic township.
| Name | Simplified Chinese | Hanyu Pinyin | Tibetan | Wylie | Administrative division code |
| Towns ||||||
| Liulin Town (Jangcai) | 柳林镇 | Liǔlín Zhèn | ལྕང་ཚལ་གྲོང་རྡལ། | lcang tshal grong rdal | 623022100 |
| Maru Town (Mu'er) | 木耳镇 | Mù'ěr Zhèn | མ་རུ་གྲོང་རྡལ། | ma ru grong rdal | 623022101 |
| Chagkoglung Town (Chakunglung, Zhagulu) | 扎古录镇 | Zhāgǔlù Zhèn | བྲག་ཁོག་ལུང་གྲོང་རྡལ། | brag khog lung grong rdal | 623022102 |
| Karqên Town (Ka'erqin) | 喀尔钦镇 | Kā'ěrqīn Zhèn | མཁར་ཆེན་གྲོང་རྡལ། | mkhar chen grong rdal | 623022103 |
| Zangbawa Town | 藏巴哇镇 | Zàngbāwā Zhèn | གཙང་པ་བ་གྲོང་རྡལ། | gtsang pa ba grong rdal | 623022104 |
| Nalung Town (Nalang) | 纳浪镇 | Nàlàng Zhèn | གནའ་ལུང་གྲོང་རྡལ། | gna' lung grong rdal | 623022105 |
| Taoyan Town (Lawoxi) | 洮砚镇 | Táoyàn Zhèn | གླ་བོ་གཤིས་གྲོང་རྡལ། | gla bo gshis grong rdal | 623022106 |
| Asigtang Town (Azitang) | 阿子滩镇 | Āzǐtān Zhèn | ཨ་གཟིགས་ཐང་གྲོང་རྡལ། | a gzigs thang grong rdal | 623022107 |
| Xincang Town (Shencang, Shenzang) | 申藏镇 | Shēncáng Zhèn | གཤིན་ཚང་གྲོང་རྡལ། | gshin tshang grong rdal | 623022108 |
| Wamar Town (Wanmao) | 完冒镇 | Wánmào Zhèn | ཝ་དམར་གྲོང་རྡལ། | wa dmar grong rdal | 623022109 |
| Nyinba Town (Niba) | 尼巴镇 | Níbā Zhèn | ཉིན་པ་གྲོང་རྡལ། | nyin pa grong rdal | 623022110 |
| Townships ||||||
| Dokog Township (Daogao) | 刀告乡 | Dāogào Xiāng | མདོ་ཁོག་ཤང་། | mdo khog shang | 623022202 |
| Kyagê Township (Qiagai) | 恰盖乡 | Qiàgài Xiāng | ཁྱ་དགེ་ཤང་། | khya dge shang | 623022207 |
| Kangtog Township (Kangduo) | 康多乡 | Kāngduō Xiāng | ཁང་ཐོག་ཤང་། | khang thog shang | 623022208 |
| Ethnic township ||||||
| Xowa Tu Ethnic Township (Shaowa) | 杓哇土族乡 | Biāowā Tǔzú Xiāng | ཤོ་བ་ཧོར་རིགས་ཤང་། | sho ba hor-rigs shang | 623022209 |

## Climate

Climate data for Jonê, elevation 2,592 m (8,504 ft), (1991–2020 normals, extremes 1981–2010) :
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 19.1 (66.4) | 22.2 (72.0) | 26.5 (79.7) | 32.1 (89.8) | 29.2 (84.6) | 29.7 (85.5) | 33.5 (92.3) | 31.0 (87.8) | 29.0 (84.2) | 23.6 (74.5) | 20.1 (68.2) | 16.5 (61.7) | 33.5 (92.3) |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 3.7 (38.7) | 6.3 (43.3) | 10.4 (50.7) | 15.0 (59.0) | 17.9 (64.2) | 20.7 (69.3) | 22.8 (73.0) | 22.5 (72.5) | 18.4 (65.1) | 13.6 (56.5) | 9.7 (49.5) | 5.4 (41.7) | 13.9 (57.0) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | −6.1 (21.0) | −2.5 (27.5) | 2.0 (35.6) | 6.8 (44.2) | 10.4 (50.7) | 13.6 (56.5) | 15.9 (60.6) | 15.3 (59.5) | 11.7 (53.1) | 6.4 (43.5) | 0.5 (32.9) | −4.7 (23.5) | 5.8 (42.4) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | −13 (9) | −9.0 (15.8) | −4.0 (24.8) | 0.5 (32.9) | 4.5 (40.1) | 8.0 (46.4) | 10.6 (51.1) | 10.2 (50.4) | 7.3 (45.1) | 1.9 (35.4) | −5.3 (22.5) | −11.5 (11.3) | 0.0 (32.1) |
| Record low °C (°F) | −23.3 (−9.9) | −20.4 (−4.7) | −18.3 (−0.9) | −8.6 (16.5) | −6.1 (21.0) | 0.7 (33.3) | 2.2 (36.0) | 1.6 (34.9) | −3.7 (25.3) | −8.8 (16.2) | −16.2 (2.8) | −21.8 (−7.2) | −23.3 (−9.9) |
| Average precipitation mm (inches) | 4.9 (0.19) | 6.1 (0.24) | 17.7 (0.70) | 40.1 (1.58) | 82.1 (3.23) | 77.0 (3.03) | 101.8 (4.01) | 86.2 (3.39) | 73.3 (2.89) | 46.7 (1.84) | 7.0 (0.28) | 2.1 (0.08) | 545 (21.46) |
| Average precipitation days (≥ 0.1 mm) | 5.9 | 7.0 | 10.3 | 11.8 | 16.1 | 16.5 | 15.6 | 14.7 | 15.3 | 13.4 | 5.0 | 3.3 | 134.9 |
| Average snowy days | 10.3 | 10.8 | 13.1 | 7.6 | 1.8 | 0.1 | 0 | 0 | 0.2 | 4.6 | 7.5 | 6.6 | 62.6 |
| Average relative humidity (%) | 53 | 54 | 58 | 60 | 64 | 69 | 72 | 73 | 75 | 72 | 62 | 54 | 64 |
| Mean monthly sunshine hours | 200.7 | 183.8 | 202.7 | 210.9 | 213.6 | 199.9 | 216.9 | 208.0 | 158.7 | 167.5 | 192.6 | 205.9 | 2,361.2 |
| Percent possible sunshine | 64 | 59 | 54 | 53 | 49 | 46 | 50 | 51 | 43 | 49 | 63 | 68 | 54 |
| Source: China Meteorological Administration ||||||||||||||