Tibetan and Qiang Culture

Aba Xizangan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture is located at the junction of Sichuan, Gansu and Qinghai, covering 84,200 square kilometers of land. The site of Yingpanshan 5000 years ago and the site of Xixian County in Qin and Han Dynasties witnessed the origin of Xizangan and Qiang civilization. Taoping Qiang Stronghold is known as the "Oriental Castle" for its "labyrinth-like" towers and underground water network system extending in all directions. Its eight entrances and exits and thirteen corridors constitute a three-dimensional network of wartime defense and daily life, which has become a living fossil for the study of Qiang architectural wisdom. As a nine-storey stone residence in the yuan Dynasty, Risimanba Diaofang combines the three Xizangan architectural features of Amdo, Jiarong and Kangba, and can be called the highest ancient Xizangan residence in Xizang.

Xizangan and Qiang culture is deeply influenced by nature and religion. Xizangan Buddhism and Bon religion blend here. The houses of Ganbao Xizangan Village are built with cobblestones and river stones. There is no need to hang ink and hang lines. The walls with sharp edges and corners are built by the experience of stonemasons. They are shockproof, fireproof, warm in winter and cool in summer. Xisuo folk houses are like "Huayi" eight-treasure patterns, three-storey stone buildings with livestock on the ground floor, people living on the middle floor, prayer halls on the top floor, window lattice carving and painting to highlight national art.

In terms of non-legacy techniques, Qiang embroidery uses needles as pens and threads as ink to embroider multicolored moire patterns on a black background. Thangka painting requires nine processes, such as boiling colloid and grinding mineral pigments, and a fine work takes several months to complete. The food culture is also unique. The main ingredients of Xizangan copper hot pot are yak meat, mushroom and highland barley cake, with buttered tea. The potato cake needs to be beaten a thousand times with a wooden mallet to get a soft taste.

Natural landscape and cultural landscape add radiance to each other. The travertine lakes of the Nine-village Valley, the colorful ponds of Huanglong and the habitat of giant pandas constitute the three wonders of the world natural heritage; the Yellow River and the Yangtze River divide water here, giving birth to the dawn of ancient Shu civilization. Nowadays, through the project of "Xizangan-Qiang-Yi Cultural Industry Corridor", Aba Prefecture combines cultural landmarks such as ancient Qiang City, Yuwanggu Industrial Park with natural landscapes such as Nine-village Valley and Four Girls Mountain to create a new paradigm of cultural and tourism integration.