Waka Town, Derong County, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province

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Waka Town, known as the "hometown of Chinese folk culture and art", is located at the southernmost end of Derong County, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, 67 km away from the county seat. It is connected with the mountains and rivers of Nishi Township, Shangri La City, Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province, and benzilan Town, Deqin County. The section from Gangqu River Bridge to Jinsha River Bridge of national highway 214 (dianzang Road) is located in Waka Town, passing through Helong bridge and Jinsha River The bay bridge is connected with 215 national highway, which runs through the whole territory of Waka. It can reach Shangri La airport in Yunnan in 1.5 hours.

Waka town covers an area of 194.16 square kilometers. The altitude of Jinsha River is from 1990 meters to 5559 meters of xianga Zhongshen mountain, with a drop of 3569 meters.

Waka town is located in the Jinsha River Valley and the arid center of Southwest China. It has a warm climate, abundant sunshine and few rainfall. The average annual temperature is 13.5 ℃ and the average annual precipitation is 308 mm. The area of cultivated land is 1591.96 mu, and the area of returning farmland to forest is 3400 mu. There are 6 administrative villages and 1 neighborhood committee with 1963 people in total.

Waka Town, surrounded by mountains and water, is a natural part of the "Three Parallel Rivers" world natural heritage. It is an important traffic node of the great Shangri La international tourism circle, and the southern bridgehead of Ganzi Prefecture's global tourism strategy. Waka tourism area is a national 3A level tourist attraction.

Waka town is located in the hinterland of Hengduan Mountain area. It is located in the "Sichuan Yunnan forest and biodiversity ecological function zone" designated by the state. It is rich in wildlife resources. It is the main part of Xiayong Provincial Nature Reserve and taiyanggu provincial scenic spot. It has the first bend of Jinsha River and other natural landscapes.

Waka town is rich in historical and cultural resources. It has five traditional Chinese villages. It is the only section of the Yunnan Tibet tea horse road in Sichuan. It is the first stop for Helong to lead the second Red Army into Xikang province from Yunnan in 1936. The intangible cultural heritage, represented by the national intangible cultural heritage Derong Xueqiang and the provincial intangible cultural heritage Tibetan folk car model skills, is a real hometown of Tibetan culture and art in Kangba.

The origin and history of the name

Waka, which means "ferry" in Tibetan, is an important ferry for the ancient tea horse road from Yunnan to Sichuan.

According to the records of Derong County compiled by Liu zanting in the third year of Xuantong (1911), the territory of Waka is under the jurisdiction of Nanlu Baozheng Wang Renqing, "Gao Likun, the sixth village head, is in charge of 24 households in alegong village, Wan Liyao, the seventh village head, is in charge of 63 households in jigding village, and Zhong Lihuan, the eighth village head, is in charge of three households in Lugong village.". Zigeng township was established in 1958, changed to Zigeng commune (Dongfeng commune) in 1973, and restored to Zigeng Township in 1984. It was renamed Waka town in November 2013.

It belongs to Derong County, which means "agricultural area in gorge zone" in Tibetan. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, it was the land of Bailang Qiang. Tang belongs to Tubo. The Yuan Dynasty is under the jurisdiction of the Marshal's office. The Ming Dynasty was under the command of duoganwei. Qing Yongzheng seven years (1729), belongs to Batang Xuanwei department. Xuantong three years (1911), set Derong member, the Republic of China two years (1913), set Derong county. In 1925, it belonged to Xikang Special Administrative Region. In 1939, it was the fifth administrative supervision district of Xikang province. In 1950, it belonged to Xikang Tibetan Autonomous Region. In October 1955, it belongs to Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Sichuan Province. The county governs songmai town. County area of 2916 square kilometers, under the jurisdiction of 4 towns and 6 townships. The total population of Derong county is 26000, and the Tibetan population accounts for 95% of the total population of Derong county. Other ethnic groups such as Han and Naxi live in concentrated communities. Naxi village is the only Naxi settlement in Ganzi Prefecture. The origin of Derong Tibetans is composed of three parts: the Tibetans from Ali, Gyangze, Gongbu and Jiangda of Tibet Autonomous Region when Songzanganbu unified the plateau in the 7th century, and the Naxi people who accompanied the army when the Naxi king of Yunnan expanded to the southern part of Kangnan from 1451 to 1509. Derong belongs to Kangba Tibetan area and believes in Tibetan Buddhism.

administrative division

As of May 2020, Waka town is under the jurisdiction of Waka village, Zishi village, Acheng village, Zigeng village, alogong village and qugangding village, as well as Waka residents committee. In May 2020, the village level system reform plan of Derong county will merge the original bazisire village, Zigeng village and wuyonggong village into Zigeng village, and the village level system of Waka town will be adjusted from 8 to 6.

Due to the wide valley and scattered villages, the six administrative villages of Waka town can be roughly divided into 16 natural villages: Waka village, Zigeng Village (bazika, srangong, jiaxueka, Zigeng, wuyonggong, muchai), Acheng Village (Acheng, land reform, ranzang), Zishi Village (Zishi, gangxue), qugangding Village (qugangding, Quzi), alogong Village (alogon) (a).

Population, nationality and language

By the end of 2017, Waka town had a population of 1963, of which Tibetans accounted for more than 99%.

Waka town dialect belongs to Han Tibetan language family, Tibeto Burmese language family, Tibeto Burmese branch. It belongs to the South Road dialect group of Kangba dialect with Deqin and Shangri La in Yunnan, Batang, Litang, Xiangcheng, Daocheng in Sichuan and Mangkang in Tibet. Its language structure is basically the same as other Kang dialects, but the use of words and sentences and pronunciation are different from other similar Kang dialects. While retaining a considerable part of the ancient vocabulary, there are widespread Chinese loanwords with strong local characteristics. With the increase of communication with the outside world and the popularization of Chinese education, the residents of Waka town are also improving their mastery of Chinese.

Government residence

Waka village, the seat of Waka town government, is about 2050 meters above sea level, which is the lowest village in Derong county.

Waka village is located in the geographical center of Shangri La, Meili Snow Mountain and Daocheng Yading scenic spots, across the Jinsha River from benzilan Town, an important town of the ancient tea horse road. It is located on the alluvial platform of the Jinsha River Valley, with flat terrain. Historically, it was an important ferry from Yunnan to Tibet for the ancient tea horse road between Yunnan and Tibet, known as "the first ferry of the ancient tea horse road".

Waka dam area has been uninhabited due to lack of water. In the 1970s, farmers gradually moved to the dam area to live. In 1984, with the great attention and concern of the Party committee and government at a higher level, it began to implement the ecological migration and became the first ecological migration development demonstration zone in Sichuan Province. After 30 years of development, there are more than 1200 residents. It has become an oasis in the dry hot valley of Jinsha River. It is an important business and material distribution center in Derong County, and has been listed as a county-level sub central town.

In 2014, Waka town was awarded "leisure agriculture and rural tourism demonstration village" in Ganzi Prefecture. The Jinshawan river crossing bridge has connected Waka town and benzilan town in Sichuan and Yunnan provinces, and national highway 214 and 215 are interconnected with convenient transportation. The business, accommodation and catering of Waka village have begun to take shape. There are several Hotels with exquisite decoration and complete facilities, such as Dawang Business Hotel, innovation business hotel and Xueyu business hotel. A large number of reception households with strong Tibetan style are being built. More than ten Tibetan and Sichuan style restaurants in the town can provide all kinds of delicacies. Local specialties such as stewed chicken with butter, river fish, Tibetan hot pot, stir fried beef with pepper and so on, which are made of Tibetan chicken, Tibetan Pig, yak meat, river fish, tree pepper and so on, are worth tasting. You can also enter farmers' homes to taste national flavors such as butter tea, slate Kui, tartary buckwheat cake, milk pork, bee sugar boiled butter and so on.

Hometown of Chinese folk culture and art

Waka town is the hometown of Chinese folk culture and art named by the Ministry of culture and tourism of the people's Republic of China. It is also a well-known hometown of Tibetan culture and art in Kangba. Here, Derong learned Qiang and Tibetan car model skills, Tibetan chess, jiubuguozhuang, Western Sichuan Tibetan folk songs, Kangba Tibetan costumes, wool textile, wine making, blockhouse building skills and other folk songs and traditional skills, and maintained a living inheritance, making Waka town a treasure house of Tibetan folk art.

On November 5, 2014, Sichuan Provincial Department of culture officially named 206 "villages of folk culture and art in Sichuan Province". Derong County, as the "hometown of love and dance", is on the list. Derong love and dance, namely Derong learning from Qiang, is the only place where this folk song and dance art is spread, and Waka town has become the "hometown of love and dance".

In July 2018, after more than two months of evaluation and naming work, through the procedures of county or township declaration, city (prefecture) cultural department recommendation, provincial expert group evaluation, evaluation leading group approval and publicity, Waka town was officially named as the "hometown of folk culture and art in Sichuan Province - hometown of love dance and learning Qiang" by Sichuan Provincial Department of culture in 2018-2020.

On February 2, 2019, the Ministry of culture and tourism named 175 counties (county-level cities, districts) and towns (streets) as the "hometown of Chinese folk culture and art" from 2018 to 2020, and Waka town was honored as the "hometown of learning from Qiang".

After continuous accumulation, evolution and development, Waka town has made every effort to build a brand of love dance learning Qiang culture, and has become an important part of Ganzi Prefecture's "love culture" - Kangding Love song in the north, Litang love poem in the middle, Derong love dance in the south, namely Kangding Love song in Kangding city in the north of Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Cangyangjiacuo love poem in Litang County in the middle, and learning Qiang love dance in Derong County in the south With the formation of the characteristic cultural brand of Ganzi Prefecture, it has gradually become a cultural brand landscape of Sichuan Province.

The treasure house of Tibetan intangible cultural heritage

As of August 2013, Waka town has one national intangible cultural heritage Derong Xueqiang, and two provincial intangible cultural heritage Tibetan folk car model skills and Guozhuang. At the same time, Waka is also the main distribution area of Tibetan folk songs in Western Sichuan, the provincial intangible cultural heritage named by Derong county.

In addition, a number of intangible cultural heritages have been declared by different Tibetan regions

Chinese PinYin : Si Chuan Sheng Gan Zi Cang Zu Zi Zhi Zhou De Rong Xian Wa Ka Zhen