Kangding County

Kangding County

Kangding or Dardo (Chinese: 康定, Pinyin: Kāngdìng; Tibetan in official transcription: Dardo or Darzêdo, in Wylie transliteration: dar mdo or dar rtse mdo) is the name of a county in Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in western Sichuan Province, China. It is administrated at the city of Kangding. In the west, Dardo was previously known as Tachienlu or Tatsienlu, after the Chinese transcription Dǎjiànlú 打箭爐 of the Tibetan name Darzêdo.

The county covers an area of 11,125 km2. (4295 sq. mi.) and roughly corresponds to the ancient Chakla Kingdom, governed by the Chakla Gyelpo from Dartsedo or Kangding (city). It includes the Minyak region of the Tibetan Plateau and the steep gorge created by the Cheto-chu and Yakra-chu tributaries of the Gyarong Gyalmo Ngulchu (རྒྱལ་རོང་རྒྱལ་མོ་རྔུལ་ཆུ་) or Dadu River.