Ngawa Prefecture

Aba Prefecture 阿坝州 · རྔ་བ་ཁུལ། · Ggabba zhou
Autonomous Prefecture
阿坝藏族羌族自治州 · རྔ་བ་བོད་རིགས་ཆ་བ༹ང་རིགས་རང་སྐྱོང་ཁུལ · Ggabba Shbea Rrmea nyujugvez zhou Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture
Buddhist stupa and houses outside Ngawa Town, Sichuan, China.
Location of Ngawa Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan
Coordinates: 31°55′N 101°43′E / 31.917°N 101.717°E / 31.917; 101.717Coordinates: 31°55′N 101°43′E / 31.917°N 101.717°E / 31.917; 101.717
Country	People's Republic of China
Province	Sichuan
Prefecture seat	Barkam (Barkam Town)
Government
• Party Committee Secretary	Liu Zuoming (刘作明)
• Governor	Yang Kening (杨克宁)
Area
• Total	83,201 km2 (32,124 sq mi)
Population (2013)
• Total	919,987
• Density	11/km2 (29/sq mi)
• Major Ethnic Groups	Tibetan-53.72% Han-24.69% Qiang- 18.28%
Time zone	China Standard (UTC+08:00)
Area code(s)	0837
GDP Total	¥ 23.4 billion [2013]
GDP Per Capita	¥ 16,000
License Plate Prefix	川U
Website	Aba China

Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, also known as Aba (Tibetan: རྔ་བ་བོད་རིགས་དང་ཆང་རིགས་རང་སྐྱོང་ཁུལ་, Wylie: rnga ba bod rigs cha'ang rigs rang skyong khul; Qiang: Ggabba Shbea Rrmea nyujugvez zhou; simplified Chinese: 阿坝藏族羌族自治州; traditional Chinese: 阿壩藏族羌族自治州), is an autonomous prefecture of northwestern Sichuan, bordering Gansu to the north and northeast and Qinghai to the northwest. Its seat is in the Barkam, and it has an area of 83,201 km² (32,124 sq mi). The population was 919,987 in late 2013.

The county of Wenchuan in Ngawa is the site of the epicenter of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, in which over 20,000 of its residents died and 40,000 injured.

In the 8th century the Gyalrong area was visited by Vairotsana.

In 1410 Je Tsongkhapa's student Tshakho Ngawang Tapa established the first Gelug monastery in the area called "Gyalrong".

In contemporary history, most of Ngawa was under the 16th Administrative Prefecture of Szechwan (Chinese:四川省第十六行政督察區), which was established by the Republic of China (ROC).