# Muli Tibetan Autonomous County

Muli Tibetan Autonomous County (Chinese: 木里藏族自治县; pinyin: Mùlǐ Zàngzú Zìzhìxiàn; Tibetan: སྨི་ལི་བོད་རིགས་རང་སྐྱོང་རྫོང smi-li rang-skyong-rdzong; Yi: ꃆꆹꀒꋤꊨꏦꏱꅉꑤ mup li op zzup zyt jie jux dde xiep) is in the Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture in the southwest of Sichuan province, China, bordering Yunnan province to the southwest. It is a remote, mountainous and forested region with few roads. The highest peaks are nearly 6000 metres in height. The trio of the sacred Konkaling mountains - Shenrezig, Jambeyang and Chanadorje in Yading Natural Park - lie to the west in Daocheng County, barely accessible by rough jeep track from Chabulang in northern Muli County.

## History

Before 1580, Muli was a colony of the Naxi kingdom and dominated by the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism. After 1640, it became a stronghold of the Tibetan Buddhist Geluk school and was deeply involved in the power struggles between the Geluk and Kakyu schools as well as the Tibetans and Mongols.
Until 1950, Muli was a semi-independent theocratic kingdom ruled by a series of hereditary lama kings based at the trio of Gelug Buddhist monasteries at old Muli, Kulu and Waerdje. These lamaseries were overthrown by the new Communist government of China in the 1950s and destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. The monastery at old Muli, 120 km (75 mi) north of the county seat, once housed more than 700 monks. It was originally built in the early Qing dynasty, took 12 years to build and was completed in the 17th year of the reign of the Shunzhi Emperor, around 1600. It was modelled on important lamaseries in Tibet and is said to have contained an impressive golden statue of Maitreya over 10 metres high.
Since 1987, Muli Monastery has been partly restored and now has about eighty young monks in residence. It is near a modern small town called Wachang, located high up on the western edge of the Litang River Valley at about 3000 metres altitude. The other monasteries are Kulu (now known as Kangwu), which has been partially rebuilt, and Waerdje (now Wa’erzhai) which is still in ruins.
Muli was visited by the botanist and explorer Joseph Rock in the 1920s and 1930s. He befriended the then lama king, Chote Chaba, and used the monastery as a base for exploring and plant collecting in the then unvisited regions of Mount Gongga and Yading. Joseph Rock wrote colourful accounts of his encounters with the eccentric lama ruler of Muli in National Geographic. These are said to have been the inspiration for the writer James Hilton and his novel Lost Horizon, about a remote monastery in the Himalayas.

## Geography

Muli county has an area of 13,252 km$^2$ (5,117 sq mi).
The county is characterised by the canyons formed by three rivers flowing from north to south: the Shuiluo River, the Litang River, and the Yalong River that carves out a huge canyon before flowing into the Yangtze River.

## Climate

Climate data for Muli, elevation 2,427 m (7,963 ft), (1991–2020 normals, extremes 1991–present) :
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 23.7 (74.7) | 26.4 (79.5) | 29.5 (85.1) | 31.2 (88.2) | 33.6 (92.5) | 35.1 (95.2) | 32.0 (89.6) | 31.3 (88.3) | 32.0 (89.6) | 28.4 (83.1) | 24.1 (75.4) | 22.7 (72.9) | 35.1 (95.2) |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 15.3 (59.5) | 17.4 (63.3) | 20.2 (68.4) | 23.3 (73.9) | 25.4 (77.7) | 25.9 (78.6) | 24.8 (76.6) | 24.5 (76.1) | 23.2 (73.8) | 21.3 (70.3) | 18.1 (64.6) | 15.5 (59.9) | 21.2 (70.2) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | 7.6 (45.7) | 9.9 (49.8) | 12.7 (54.9) | 15.6 (60.1) | 18.2 (64.8) | 19.4 (66.9) | 18.9 (66.0) | 18.6 (65.5) | 17.2 (63.0) | 14.6 (58.3) | 10.4 (50.7) | 7.6 (45.7) | 14.2 (57.6) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 1.0 (33.8) | 3.1 (37.6) | 6.2 (43.2) | 9.2 (48.6) | 12.4 (54.3) | 14.8 (58.6) | 15.1 (59.2) | 14.7 (58.5) | 13.3 (55.9) | 9.7 (49.5) | 4.5 (40.1) | 1.2 (34.2) | 8.8 (47.8) |
| Record low °C (°F) | −5.4 (22.3) | −4.4 (24.1) | −0.9 (30.4) | 2.4 (36.3) | 4.0 (39.2) | 8.3 (46.9) | 9.3 (48.7) | 9.1 (48.4) | 5.4 (41.7) | 3.1 (37.6) | −1.7 (28.9) | −6.5 (20.3) | −6.5 (20.3) |
| Average precipitation mm (inches) | 3.9 (0.15) | 2.6 (0.10) | 8.9 (0.35) | 21.6 (0.85) | 68.2 (2.69) | 161.6 (6.36) | 201.5 (7.93) | 168.1 (6.62) | 112.0 (4.41) | 39.0 (1.54) | 9.7 (0.38) | 1.3 (0.05) | 798.4 (31.43) |
| Average precipitation days (≥ 0.1 mm) | 2.0 | 2.1 | 4.3 | 6.9 | 12.9 | 19.6 | 22.0 | 20.8 | 17.5 | 9.8 | 2.8 | 0.7 | 121.4 |
| Average snowy days | 1.2 | 0.8 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.1 | 0.4 | 3 |
| Average relative humidity (%) | 36 | 33 | 35 | 40 | 51 | 67 | 76 | 75 | 74 | 65 | 54 | 44 | 54 |
| Mean monthly sunshine hours | 227.3 | 207.9 | 228.6 | 214.3 | 203.6 | 154.8 | 130.2 | 142.4 | 132.6 | 184.3 | 206.2 | 224.8 | 2,257 |
| Percentage possible sunshine | 69 | 65 | 61 | 55 | 48 | 37 | 31 | 35 | 36 | 52 | 64 | 70 | 52 |
| Source: China Meteorological Administration ||||||||||||||

## Administrative divisions

Muli County comprises 6 towns, 16 townships and 5 ethnic townships.
| Name | Simplified Chinese | Hanyu Pinyin | Tibetan | Wylie | Administrative division code |
| Towns ||||||
| Qab'oi Town (Qiaowa) | 乔瓦镇 | Qiáowǎ Zhèn | ཆབ་འོད་གྲོང་རྡལ། | chab 'od grong rdal | 513422100 |
| Tangkur Town (Wachang) | 瓦厂镇 | Wǎchǎng Zhèn | ཐང་ཁུར་གྲོང་རྡལ། | thang khur grong rdal | 513422101 |
| Carong Town (Chabulang) | 茶布朗镇 | Chábùlǎng Zhèn | ཚ་རོང་གྲོང་རྡལ། | tsha rong grong rdal | 513422102 |
| Yalongjiang Town | 雅砻江镇 | Yǎlóngjiāng Zhèn | | | 513422103 |
| Xolung Town (Shuiluo, Xolo) | 水洛镇 | Shuǐluò Zhèn | ཞོ་ལུང་གྲོང་རྡལ། | zho lung grong rdal | 513422104 |
| Lêgwa Town (Liewa, Liwa) | 列瓦镇 | Lièwǎ Zhèn | ལེགས་བ་གྲོང་རྡལ། | legs ba grong rdal | 513422105 |
| Townships ||||||
| Bakü Township (Boikü, Boke) | 博科乡 | Bókē Xiāng | དཔའ་ཁུལ་གྲོང་། | dpa' khul grong | 513422201 |
| Lingrong Township (Ninglang) | 宁朗乡 | Nínglǎng Xiāng | གླིང་རོང་ཞང་། | gling rong zhang | 513422202 |
| Yargyai Township (Yiji) | 依吉乡 | Yījí Xiāng | ཡར་རྒྱས་ཞང་། | yar rgyas zhang | 513422203 |
| Zhiyagtang Township (Maoniuping) | 牦牛坪乡 | Máoniúpíng Xiāng | འབྲི་གཡག་ཐང་ཞང་། | 'bri g.yag thang zhang | 513422206 |
| Zhaixingtang Township (Liziping) | 李子坪乡 | Lǐzǐpíng Xiāng | འབྲས་ཤིང་ཐང་ཤང་། | 'bras shing thang shang | 513422209 |
| Xiqu Township (Xiqiu) | 西秋乡 | Xīqiū Xiāng | ཤིས་ཆུ་ཞང་། | shis chu zhang | 513422213 |
| Karri Township (Ke'er) | 克尔乡 | Kè'ěr Xiāng | མཁར་རི་ཞང་། | mkhar ri zhang | 513422214 |
| Sagaryü Township (Sanjueya) | 三桷桠乡 | Sānjuéyā Xiāng | ས་དཀར་ཡུལ་ཞང་། | sa dkar yul zhang | 513422216 |
| Norbu Township (Luobo) | 倮波乡 | Luǒbō Xiāng | ནོར་བུ་ཞང་། | nor bu zhang | 513422217 |
| Karra Township (Kala) | 卡拉乡 | Kǎlā Xiāng | མཁར་ར་ཞང་། | mkhar ra zhang | 513422218 |
| Horsog Township (Housuo) | 后所乡 | Hòusuǒ Xiāng | ཧོར་སོག་ཞང་། | hor sog zhang | 513422219 |
| Xê'oi Township (Shawan) | 沙湾乡 | Shāwān Xiāng | ཤེལ་འོད་ཞང་། | shel 'od zhang | 513422220 |
| Baisi Township (Mairi) | 麦日乡 | Màirì Xiāng | དཔལ་གཟི་ཞང་། | dpal gzi zhang | 513422223 |
| Dêrrong Township (Donglang) | 东朗乡 | Dōnglǎng Xiāng | གཏེར་རོང་ཞང་། | gter rong zhang | 513422224 |
| Tangyang Township | 唐央乡 | Tángyāng Xiāng | ཐང་ཡངས་ཞང་། | thang yangs zhang | 513422225 |
| Bawo Township | 博窝乡 | Bówō Xiāng | དཔའ་བོ་ཞང་། | dpa' bo zhang | 513422226 |
| Ethnic townships ||||||
| Oyag Naxi Ethnic Township (Eya) | 俄亚纳西族乡 | Éyà Nàxīzú Xiāng | འོ་ཡག་འཇང་རིགས་ཞང་། | 'o yag 'jang rigs zhang | 513422204 |
| Ujuur Mongol Ethnic Township (Rinjung, Wujiao) | 屋脚蒙古族乡 | Wūjiǎo Ménggǔzú Xiāng | རིན་འབྱུང་སོག་རིགས་ཞང་། | rin 'byung sog rigs zhang | 513422207 |
| Ngagjoi Mongol Ethnic Township (Xiangjiao) | 项脚蒙古族乡 | Xiàngjiǎo Ménggǔzú Xiāng | སྔགས་སྤྱོད་སོག་རིགས་ཞང་། | sngags spyod sog rigs zhang | 513422208 |
| Baidain Miao Ethnic Township (Baidiao) | 白碉苗族乡 | Báidiāo Miáozú Xiāng | དཔལ་ལྡན་མིའོ་རིགས་ཞང་། | dpal ldan mi'o rigs zhang | 513422215 |
| Kêzain Miao Ethnic Township (Guzeng) | 固增苗族乡 | Gùzēng Miáozú Xiāng | གེ་བཙན་མྱའོ་རིགས་ཞང་། | ge btsan mya'o rigs zhang | 513422222 |

## Demographics

Muli County has a population of more than 125,000. The inhabitants of Muli include many of China's minorities, predominantly Tibetan and Yi as well as Pumi and Naxi people. There are also some ethnic Mongol people who settled here after the pacification expeditions of Kublai Khan in the 11th century.

### Ethnic groups in Muli, 2000 census

| Nationality | Population | Percentage |
| Tibetan | 40,312 | 32.39% |
| Yi | 34,489 | 27.71% |
| Han | 27,199 | 21.85% |
| Miao | 8,371 | 6.73% |
| Mongol | 8,035 | 6.46% |
| Naxi | 4,317 | 3.47% |
| Buyei | 988 | 0.79% |
| Zhuang | 403 | 0.32% |
| Lisu | 124 | 0.1% |
| Hui | 91 | 0.07% |
| Bai | 91 | 0.07% |
| Manchu | 15 | 0.01% |
| Others | 27 | 0.02% |

## Economy

The main resources in Muli are hydro electric power from the rivers and a wide variety of plants used in traditional Chinese medicine, such as Chinese caterpillar fungus. The remote location and low population have allowed many protected species to survive here, including the white-lipped deer and stump-tailed macaque.
Muli is famous for its gold producing rivers, which are still exploited on a small, non-industrial scale. Its broad expanses of forests were also heavily logged until a logging ban was introduced in 1999. Now most of the local economy is based on agriculture and livestock. Forests include hemlock, cypress, yellow cedars, as well as spruce and fir trees.
Muli is also known for its azalea, rhododendron, and walnut plants.