Atlas of China
Yushu 玉树Yùshù
Kham highlands where the Yangtze, Yellow River and Mekong all begin
About Yushu
Yushu belongs to Kham, the eastern Tibetan cultural region, and about 95 per cent of its people are Tibetan. Its main town, Gyêgu (Jiegu), grew as the caravan market of Jyekundo between Xining, Sichuan and Lhasa and was rebuilt after the April 2010 earthquake; nearby, the Xinzhai Jiana Mani Stone Pile heaps up carved prayer stones and Princess Wencheng Temple has Buddhist figures carved in a cliff. Most monasteries are Kagyu or Sakya rather than Gelug, among them Dana Temple, tied to the Gesar epic.
Listed sites in Yushu
4 sites in Yushu are on the official lists. Those with a page of their own link to it; the rest open as cards on the map.
- Princess Wencheng Temple and Lebagou Rock Carvings 勒巴沟文成公主庙 4A scenic area · National heritage site · on the map
A small Buddhist temple built against a cliff in the Beinagou valley near Gyêgu (Jiegu), Yushu's main town, where Vairocana and eight attendant bodhisattvas are carved in relief on the rock above the hall, with more carvings and Tibetan inscriptions elsewhere in the valley and in neighbouring Lebagou. - Xinzhai Jiana Mani Stone Pile 新寨嘉那嘛呢 4A scenic area · National heritage site
A huge pile of carved mani stones on a hillside at Xinzhai, on the edge of Gyêgu (Jiegu), Yushu's main town, begun, by tradition, in the late 18th century by the first Jiana lama of Jiegu Monastery and added to by pilgrims ever since. - Dana Temple and the Stupas of Gesar's Thirty Generals 达那寺 National heritage site
A Yelpa Kagyu monastery on the slopes of Dana (Horse-Ear) Mountain in the far north-west of Nangqian County, near the border with the Tibet Autonomous Region, said to be the only surviving monastery of its school and to have begun as a Bon temple. - Zangniang Stupa and Sangzhou Temple 藏娘佛塔及桑周寺 National heritage site · on the map
A large stupa dating from the Northern Song period (960–1127), standing beside Sangzhou monastery on the south bank of the Tongtian River in Yushu.
On the map
Open Yushu on the illustrated map to see its outline, its places and listed sites together, and to add them to a trip.
Open Yushu on the map