# Pasho County

Pasho County or Baxoi County (Tibetan: དཔའ་ཤོད་རྫོང་།; simplified Chinese: 八宿县; traditional Chinese: 八宿縣; pinyin: Bāsù Xiàn) is a county under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Chamdo in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. The county seat is at Pema, which is also called the "Pasho Town". It contains the Pomda Monastery and Rakwa Tso lake. As of the 2020 Chinese Census, Pasho County has a population of 43,538.

## History

The area of present-day Pasho County belonged to the Tibetan Empire, around the same time as the Tang dynasty's existence.
During the Yuan dynasty, the area was incorporated as part of the Bureau of Buddhist and Tibetan Affairs.
During the Ming dynasty, the area was organized under the tusi of Mo'erkan [zh].
The Pasho Larang [zh] was established in 1694. The Tibetan Kashag placed it under the control of the Kundeling Monastery, located in Lhasa, in 1725. Later, under the administration of the Qing dynasty, the area was placed under the jurisdiction of Enda County [zh].
In 1912, Pasho was established as a zong [zh].
In 1951, the People's Republic of China established a local government in the area. In May 1959, the area was reorganized as Pasho County. The county seat was moved from Tanggar to Baima in 1964, where it remains today.

## Geography

Pasho County is located within Chamdo, in the eastern part of the Tibet Autonomous Region. The county itself is located within the south of Chamdo. It borders Zogong County and Zhag'yab County to the east, Zayu County to the south, Lhorong County and Bomê County to the west, and Karub District and Riwoche County to the north. Pasho County has a maximum east-west distance of 112 kilometres (70 mi) and a maximum north-south distance of 150 kilometres (93 mi).
The county is highly mountainous, with an average elevation of about 3,260 metres (10,700 ft) above sea level. Pasho County contains the Brahmaputra–Salween water divide. The Ngajuk La pass (29°40′07″N 96°43′05″E﻿ / ﻿29.6687°N 96.7181°E﻿ / 29.6687; 96.7181﻿ (Ngajuk La)) is on the divide. To the north, Ling Chu flows north and east draning into Salween. To the south, Parlung Tsangpo flows south and west to drain into the Tsangpo River (the Tibetan section of Brahmaputra). Pasho County hosts the Rakwa Tso lake and the Laigu Glacier [zh].

### Climate

Pasho town, owing to the strong rain shadow of local mountains surrounding the deep gorge in which it lies, has a cool semi-arid climate (Köppen BSk), being slightly warmer due to less high altitude and substantially drier than most of the eastern "river region" of Tibet – for instance its annual rainfall is only about half that of Lhasa. Summers are warm and showery, whilst winters are cool by day, freezing by night, and extremely dry.
Climate data for Pasho, elevation 3,260 m (10,700 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) | 18.4 (65.1) | 19.6 (67.3) | 25.0 (77.0) | 25.4 (77.7) | 30.3 (86.5) | 31.9 (89.4) | 33.4 (92.1) | 31.6 (88.9) | 32.0 (89.6) | 27.9 (82.2) | 22.0 (71.6) | 17.7 (63.9) | 33.4 (92.1) |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 9.1 (48.4) | 11.2 (52.2) | 13.8 (56.8) | 17.2 (63.0) | 21.6 (70.9) | 25.5 (77.9) | 26.1 (79.0) | 25.3 (77.5) | 24.1 (75.4) | 19.2 (66.6) | 14.1 (57.4) | 10.3 (50.5) | 18.1 (64.6) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | 1.3 (34.3) | 4.0 (39.2) | 6.9 (44.4) | 10.5 (50.9) | 15.2 (59.4) | 19.0 (66.2) | 19.3 (66.7) | 18.4 (65.1) | 17.1 (62.8) | 12.1 (53.8) | 6.2 (43.2) | 2.0 (35.6) | 11.0 (51.8) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | −5.3 (22.5) | −2.4 (27.7) | 1.2 (34.2) | 5.1 (41.2) | 9.7 (49.5) | 14.0 (57.2) | 14.4 (57.9) | 13.6 (56.5) | 11.9 (53.4) | 6.4 (43.5) | −0.3 (31.5) | −4.7 (23.5) | 5.3 (41.6) |
| Record low °C (°F) | −14.9 (5.2) | −10.9 (12.4) | −8.5 (16.7) | −3.6 (25.5) | 0.6 (33.1) | 4.5 (40.1) | 7.4 (45.3) | 5.1 (41.2) | 1.0 (33.8) | −4.3 (24.3) | −9.5 (14.9) | −16.9 (1.6) | −16.9 (1.6) |
| Average precipitation mm (inches) | 0.3 (0.01) | 1.9 (0.07) | 8.5 (0.33) | 18.6 (0.73) | 21.5 (0.85) | 29.0 (1.14) | 62.6 (2.46) | 58.6 (2.31) | 31.9 (1.26) | 14.3 (0.56) | 2.6 (0.10) | 1.3 (0.05) | 251.1 (9.87) |
| Average precipitation days (≥ 0.1 mm) | 0.5 | 1.4 | 3.8 | 6.2 | 6.6 | 8.9 | 15.0 | 15.4 | 8.9 | 4.9 | 1.3 | 0.5 | 73.4 |
| Average snowy days | 1.2 | 2.4 | 4.0 | 2.0 | 0.2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.5 | 1.6 | 0.8 | 12.7 |
| Average relative humidity (%) | 26 | 27 | 33 | 40 | 39 | 43 | 52 | 56 | 49 | 41 | 32 | 29 | 39 |
| Mean monthly sunshine hours | 212.9 | 223.8 | 252.8 | 245.7 | 260.9 | 232.9 | 201.4 | 199.4 | 218.9 | 233.1 | 216.8 | 207.6 | 2,706.2 |
| Percentage possible sunshine | 65 | 71 | 68 | 63 | 61 | 55 | 47 | 49 | 60 | 67 | 69 | 66 | 62 |
| Source: China Meteorological Administration ||||||||||||||

## Administrative divisions

Pasho County is divided into 4 towns and 10 townships.
| Name | Chinese | Hanyu Pinyin | Tibetan | Wylie |
| Town |||||
| Baima (Pema, Pasho) | 白玛镇 | Báimǎ zhèn | པད་མ་གྲོང་རྡལ། | pad ma grong rdal |
| Bangda | 帮达镇 | Bāngdá zhèn | སྤང་མདའ་གྲོང་རྡལ། | spang mda' grong rdal |
| Rawu | 然乌镇 | Ránwū zhèn | རྭ་འོག་གྲོང་རྡལ། | rwa 'og grong rdal |
| Tanggar | 同卡镇 | Tóngkǎ zhèn | ཐང་དཀར་གྲོང་རྡལ། | thang dkar grong rdal |
| Townships |||||
| Korqên Township [zh] | 郭庆乡 | Guōqìng xiāng | འཁོར་ཆེན་ཤང་། | 'khor chen shang |
| Lagê Township [zh] | 拉根乡 | Lāgēn xiāng | གླ་སྐེ་ཤང་། | gla ske shang |
| Yiqên Township [zh] | 益庆乡 | Yìqìng xiāng | ཡིད་ཆེན་ཤང་། | yid chen shang |
| Jirong Township [zh] | 集中乡 | Jízhōng xiāng | དཀྱིལ་གྲོང་ཤང་། | dkyil grong shang |
| Karwa Pêkyim Township [zh] | 卡瓦白庆乡 | Kǎwǎbáiqìng xiāng | མཁར་བ་འཕེལ་ཁྱིམ་ཤང་། | mkhar ba 'phel khyim shang |
| Gyêda Township [zh] | 吉达乡 | Jídá xiāng | སྐྱེ་མདའ་ཤང་། | skye mda' shang |
| Gyari Township | 夏里乡 | Xiàlǐ xiāng | སྐྱ་རི་ཤང་། | skya ri shang |
| Yangpa Township [zh] | 拥乡 | Yōng xiāng | ཡངས་པ་ཤང་། | yangs pa shang |
| Wa Township [zh] | 瓦乡 | Wǎ xiāng | ཝ་ཤང་། | wa shang |
| Lingka Township | 林卡乡 | Línkǎ xiāng | གླིང་ཁ་ཤང་། | gling kha shang |

## Demographics

Per the 2020 Chinese Census, Pasho County has a population of 43,538, up from the 39,021 recorded in the 2010 Chinese Census. Pasho County had a population of 38,170 as of the 2000 Chinese Census.

## Transport

* China National Highway 318

## Maps

* Su-tun (Shugden Gompa) (AMS, 1954)
* Janwu China (DMA)