Qonggyai County 琼结县 • འཕྱོངས་རྒྱས་རྫོང་། |
|
---|---|
County | |
Near the Valley of the Kings (Tibet)
|
|
Location of Qonggyai County within Tibet |
|
Location in Tibet | |
Coordinates: 29°15′30″N 91°51′30″E / 29.25833°N 91.85833°E | |
Country | People's Republic of China |
Region | Tibet Autonomous Region |
Prefecture-level city | Shannnan |
Area | |
• Total | 1,030 km2 (400 sq mi) |
Population (1999) | |
• Total | 17,031 |
Time zone | China Standard (UTC+8) |
Administrative division code: 542225 |
Qonggyai County or Chongye County, (Tibetan: འཕྱོངས་རྒྱས་རྫོང་, THL: Chonggyé dzong, Chinese: 琼结县; pinyin: Qióngjié xiàn) is a county of Shannnan in the Tibet Autonomous Region.
Qonggyai contains the Valley of the Kings, a series of graveyard tumuli, approximately 27 kilometres (17 mi) south of Tsetang, Tibet, near the town of Chongye or Qonggyai on Mure Mountain. The site possesses eight large mounds of earth resembling natural hills that are believed to contain eight to ten buried Tibetan kings.
According to Tibetan tradition all the kings from Dri-gum onwards are buried at ‘Phyong-rgyas, but as the site now presents itself, there are just ten tumuli identifiable as the tombs of all the kings from Srong-brtsan-sgam-po to Khri-lde-srong-brtsan, including two princes.
Other sources, however, have indicated that there are actually nine mounds rather than eight or ten. The kings believed to be buried at the site include Songtsän Gampo (the founder of the Tibetan Empire), Mangsong Mangtsen, Tridu Songtsen, Gyangtsa Laban, Me Agtsom, Trisong Detsen, Muné Tsenpo and Ralpacan.