# Biru County

Biru County (Tibetan: འབྲི་རུ་རྫོང་།; Chinese: 比如县) is the most populated county within Nagqu of the Tibet Autonomous Region, China. The name means "female yak". Either of the following pronunciations can be considered correct in Standard Tibetan: [bìru] ~ [pìru] (conventionally written Biru in English) or [ɖìru] ~ [ʈìru] (conventionally Driru).

## Geography

Biru lies in the southwest part of the former province of Kham. To its east is Chamdo and to its west Nagchu. Biru is located on the Gyalmo Ngulchu River (upper part of Salween River). Diru is bordered by Sog County to the northwest and the extreme east of Banbar County་, is also surrounded by Lhari County to the south, and extreme north to the Nagchu county.
Sepu Kangri is located in the county.

## Climate

Climate data for Biru, elevation 3,940 m (12,930 ft), (1991–2020 normals) :
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 2.3 (36.1) | 4.6 (40.3) | 8.1 (46.6) | 12.1 (53.8) | 15.9 (60.6) | 19.0 (66.2) | 20.7 (69.3) | 20.8 (69.4) | 18.2 (64.8) | 12.9 (55.2) | 7.9 (46.2) | 4.3 (39.7) | 12.2 (54.0) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | −6.3 (20.7) | −3.5 (25.7) | 0.3 (32.5) | 4.2 (39.6) | 7.9 (46.2) | 11.4 (52.5) | 12.9 (55.2) | 12.6 (54.7) | 10.0 (50.0) | 4.7 (40.5) | −1.2 (29.8) | −5.2 (22.6) | 4.0 (39.2) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | −13.3 (8.1) | −10.4 (13.3) | −6.2 (20.8) | −2.1 (28.2) | 2.0 (35.6) | 5.9 (42.6) | 7.6 (45.7) | 7.2 (45.0) | 4.8 (40.6) | −0.8 (30.6) | −7.6 (18.3) | −12.4 (9.7) | −2.1 (28.2) |
| Average precipitation mm (inches) | 5.8 (0.23) | 7.0 (0.28) | 10.0 (0.39) | 16.8 (0.66) | 66.2 (2.61) | 132.4 (5.21) | 125.4 (4.94) | 105.6 (4.16) | 86.8 (3.42) | 36.2 (1.43) | 5.3 (0.21) | 3.8 (0.15) | 601.3 (23.69) |
| Average precipitation days (≥ 0.1 mm) | 5.0 | 5.5 | 7.4 | 9.7 | 17.6 | 23.4 | 22.0 | 20.4 | 20.1 | 10.9 | 3.5 | 2.9 | 148.4 |
| Average snowy days | 6.6 | 8.0 | 11.1 | 12.6 | 6.1 | 0.7 | 0 | 0 | 0.3 | 8.2 | 4.9 | 4.2 | 62.7 |
| Average relative humidity (%) | 42 | 40 | 41 | 47 | 56 | 64 | 67 | 67 | 67 | 58 | 46 | 40 | 53 |
| Mean monthly sunshine hours | 161.5 | 160.2 | 186.3 | 203.6 | 216.3 | 189.8 | 190.5 | 196.4 | 185.7 | 196.6 | 180.2 | 173.2 | 2,240.3 |
| Percent possible sunshine | 50 | 51 | 50 | 52 | 51 | 45 | 44 | 48 | 51 | 56 | 57 | 55 | 51 |
| Source: China Meteorological Administration ||||||||||||||

## Administrative divisions

Biru county contains the following 2 towns and 8 townships:
| Name | Chinese | Hanyu Pinyin | Tibetan | Wylie |
| Towns |||||
| Biru Town | 比如镇 | Bǐrú zhèn | འབྲི་རུ་གྲོང་རྡལ། | 'bri ru grong rdal |
| Shachu Town | 夏曲镇 | Xiàqǔ zhèn | ཤག་ཆུ་གྲོང་རྡལ། | shag chu grong rdal |
| Townships |||||
| Benkar Township | 白嘎乡 | Báigā xiāng | བན་དཀར་ཤང་། | ban dkar shang |
| Latang Township (Dawatang) | 达塘乡 | Dátáng xiāng | ཟླ་ཐང་ཤང་། | zla thang shang |
| Qagzê Township | 恰则乡 | Qiàzé xiāng | ཆགས་རྩེ་ཤང་། | chags rtse shang |
| Zala Township | 扎拉乡 | Zhālā xiāng | རྩྭ་ལ་ཤང་། | rtswa la shang |
| Yangshok Township | 羊秀乡 | Yángxiù xiāng | གཡང་ཤོག་ཤང་། | g.yang shog shang |
| Shamchu Township | 香曲乡 | Xiāngqǔ xiāng | གཤམ་ཆུ་ཤང་། | gsham chu shang |
| Lenchu Township | 良曲乡 | Liángqǔ xiāng | རླན་ཆུ་ཤང་། | rlan chu shang |
| Tsachu Township | 茶曲乡 | Cháqǔ xiāng | ཚྭ་ཆུ་ཤང་། | tshwa chu shang |

## Demographics

At the 2009 PRC census, the county's population was 60,179, of whom:
| Name of group | Number | Percentage |
| Tibetans | 59,824 | 99.21% |
| Han | 313 | 0.69% |
| Bai | 11 | 0.02% |
| Uyghurs | 9 | 0.02% |
| Others | 22 | 0.05% |

## Gallery

* Biru Town from southbank of Gyalmo Ngulchu
* Biru Town from the hill to the north
* Tsachu/Caqu village
* A meander of the river in Biru from the north bank
* Same meander of the river from the south bank
* View of a meander from the top
* Sepu Kangri
* A monastery stupa in Biru
* The Biru Skull Wall, a local funerary practice