རྔ་བ་རྫོང་།

Amdo Ngawa

Ngawa is a district of southern Amdo in Tibet. Now it is part of Sichuan province in China. Ngawa has three regions: upper, middle, and lower areas.  Ngawa has many monasteries and they follow many different schools of Buddhism, and the Bon religion as well.

རྔ་སྲུབ

There are two theories about the name of Ngawa in Tibetan history. According to one argument, it is said that many centuries ago a group of immigrants came from a place in upper Tibet called Ngary and the region was then named after them. The people of Ngary speak a similar dialect to the people of Ngawa.  The other argument holds that the area's landscape is shaped like a round drum. In Tibetan Nga means drum and that is why the area is called Ngawa.  The late Tibetan scholar Ven. Mergi Samten Rinpoche supported this last opinion.

རྔ་ཉིན།

People of Ngawa

In general, Ngawa people are very hard working, strong, courageous, loyal and very spiritual. For most people spiritual development is their primary goal.  Therefore, Ngawa has many monasteries with many monks.

རྔ་སྟོད་ཀྱི་རི་ལུང་།

Traditionally, in Ngawa, elders are the head of the family and the community. It is part of the culture that younger people respect and listen to their elders.  Elders are mainly focused on spiritual activities such as worshipping, helping the poor and saving animals lives.

ཨ་འདུས་ཁོག

People in Ngawa are very dedicated to building their communities, and the cultural and educational institutions in Ngawa and else where.  Collective work and helping each other is part of their daily lives. So they have lived in peace for centuries and are satisfied with a semi-nomadic and semi-farmer's life.