Dear friends around the world,

I’m always asked where I come from and how I came to be a Buddhist monk. While I have blogged some articles about my life, ranging from my childhood until where I am today, I have not really written much about the heritage stemming from my biological parents. From a very young age in America, I was brought up to think that I was purely Kalmyk Mongol. I didn’t get to know that I was also Tibetan until I was much older. I am proud of both my Mongol and Tibetan heritages when I finally found out of which both places are now in China. So connections to China are strong due to my heritage. I would very much like to explore my heritage, China and all that comes with it for personal growth, understanding and to know who I am. Nothing more and nothing less. I am connected to China and I am happy for it as I have admired the greatness of Chinese culture for decades.

My mother was the Mongolian Princess Dewa Nimbo, from Xinjiang, while my father was an ex-monk from Golok in Amdo, Tibet and was a disciple of His Holiness the 10th Panchen Lama. Both of these places have their own unique environment, people, languages, cultures and way of life, and are both now part of the People’s Republic of China. Since that is the case, that makes me Chinese, through biological heritage. I wanted to share with all of you some information about these two places, because not many people around the world know about Xinjiang and Golok. I hope you enjoy reading some quick facts about two lands and the two peoples that I descend from.

I do thank Buddhist Pastor David Lai for his research, work and writing of this post. It will go a long way to solve the ‘mystery’ that is Tsem Rinpoche’s ancestry. I also thank Buddhist Pastor Niral Patel for the editing.

I do hope very much to visit Xianjiang as the landscape is spectacular. I am very attracted to the landscape of mountains, blue lakes, forests and meadows. I would love to sit by one the turquoise lakes and do pujas.

Tsem Rinpoche

Mother’s side

Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China

His Eminence Tsem Rinpoche’s biological mother, Dewa Nimbo, the Mongolian Princess of Xinjiang.

His Eminence the 25th Tsem Rinpoche’s mother Dewa Nimbo is from Xinjiang. The northern region of this Autonomous Region in China used to be the Dzungar khanate (kingdom) in the 18th Century. The Oirat people who used to rule Dzungaria are a group of Mongols whose ancestral home is in the Altai region of western Mongolia. Despite the fact that the Oirats originated in Central Asia, the largest group today is located in the Russian province of Kalmykia, where they are called Kalmyks. Historically, the Oirats encompassed four major tribes – the Dzungar, Torghut, Dorbet, and Khoshut. Rinpoche’s mother belongs to the Torghut tribe.

However, Dzungaria today is part of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, which is a provincial-level autonomous region of China in the northwest of the country that spans over 1.6 million km. This makes it comparable in size to Iran and is one sixth of China’s land mass. Despite its size, only about 4.3 percent of Xinjiang’s landmass is fit for habitation. Xinjiang borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China, India’s Leh District to the south, Qinghai and Gansu provinces to the southeast, Mongolia to the east, Russia to the north, and Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India to the West.

Migyur Wang, Tsem Rinpoche’s maternal grandfather, the last Emperor of Xinjiang. He was royalty from the Mongol ruling family of the area, and descended directly from Genghis Khan.

Xinjiang is populated by many ethnic minority groups, such as the Han, Tajiks, Hui, Uyghur, Kyrgyz, Kazaks, Mongols, and Russians. Just like Tibet, the demographic composition of the province has shifted over the past few decades. Today, it is about 45 percent Uyghur and 40 percent Han Chinese, while the remaining 15 percent consists of the remaining ethnic groups. The total population of the province is 21.8 million people.

Rinpoche’s maternal lineage is traced to Wusu, a county-level city in Xinjiang that has about 227,449 residents. It is a part of the Tacheng Prefecture, which itself is part of the Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture. Wusu is located in the northwest region of the Xinjiang Province of China. In ancient times, Wusu used to belong to the Qosut tribe of Mongolia. Its full name is Kuerkalawusu, which meant ‘Black Water of the Snow-capped Land’ in Mongolian. However today, Wusu is one of the main areas where the Torghut descendants reside, numbering roughly over 150,000 in the city.

Out of the many religions prevalent in Xinjiang, Islam has the largest number of practitioners, who are predominantly of the Uyghur and the minority Hui Chinese peoples. On the other hand, many of the Han Chinese practice Chinese folk religions, Taoism, Confucianism and Buddhism. According to a demographic analysis in 2010, Muslims form 58% of the province’s population.

Just like anywhere else in China, the official language is Mandarin. However, there are many other languages that are spoken in Xinjiang due to the ethnic diversity in the region. The second most common language is Uyghur, a Turkic language similar to Uzbek but written in Arabic script. Hence, most official signs in the province are bilingual, using both Uyghur and Chinese. Other languages include Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Tajik and Mongol.

Dechen Minh, Tsem Rinpoche’s maternal grandmother, was wife of Migyur Wang and Queen of Xinjiang.

Xinjiang is famous for its naan bread, watermelons, grapes, raisins and walnuts. Xinjiang naan comes in all sizes and are sold on most streets in every city. It is usually made plain but some are made with onions or spring onions as well. Watermelons in Xinjiang are small, round and tasty. In some cities this fruit is found to be sold on every street corner. Watermelons from the oasis town of Hami are particularly renowned all over China. Grapes and raisins from Xinjiang are particularly sweet because of the amount of sunlight the region receives and the low amount of rainfall, particularly in Turpan. Finally, walnuts from Xinjiang is a famous export as well.

The Xinjiang landscape is unique because of what is described as ‘three mountains surrounded by two basins’. This can be seen from north to south with the Altai Mountains, the Dzungarian Basin, the Tianshan Mountains, the Tarim Basin, and the Kunlun Mountains. The Tianshan Mountains punctuate the middle of the province and divides this Autonomous Region into two – the northern and southern regions. The entire Xinjiang region has drastic seasonal differences in temperature, with cold winters. Xinjiang is traditionally an agricultural region but also has large deposits of minerals and oil too.

Mountains and lush grasslands such as the Kanas Nature Reserve and Narat Grassland dominate the northern landscape. This contrasts with the south, which is largely barren and blanketed by the Taklamakan Desert. Hence, life in the north historically revolved around a pastoral-based culture while the south was a dessert-based culture. Northern culture is marked by fine horses and the sweet sounds of Uyghur folk singing, while the south is marked by its beautiful ethnic dances, such as the traditional Mukamu folk dance.

The capital of Xinjiang is Urumqi city and it is situated up in the north of the province. The city boasts several spectacular natural landscape highlights such as the Red Hill and the Southern Pasture, along with historical monuments like the Tartar Mosque and the Qinghai Mosque. Urumqi was a stopover along the ancient Silk Road, a historically important trade route between China and the Mediterranean, which extended as far as Rome, in Italy. Some other notable cities along the Silk Road include Kashgar and Turpan, that boast other places of interest like the Id Kah Mosque, Karakuri Lake and Karez System.

A map showing Wusu in Xinjiang Autonomous Region in north west China.

Xinjiang Heavenly Lake, Tian Chi

Xinjiang Kanas National Geopark

Xinjiang Kanas National Geopark

Xinjiang Heavenly Lake, Tian Chi

Xinjiang Hong Guang Shan Buddhist Temple

Traditional costume and dance of the Uyghur people

Xinjiang Uyghur Naan Bread

Wusu, Xinjiang

Wusu, Xinjiang

Wusu, Xinjiang

Wusu, Xinjiang

Wusu, Xinjiang

Tsem Rinpoche’s maternal relatives in front of a Buddhist temple in Wusu, Xinjiang

The Mongolians of Wusu in front of Migyur Wang’s (Tsem Rinpoche’s maternal grandfather) old residence in Wusu, Xinjiang

 
For more interesting information:

• H.E. the 25th Tsem Tulku Rinpoche’s Biography
• The Mala
• I Like This Picture of My Mother
• My Short Bio in pictures
• Sonia, Sara and me
• My Great Aunt the Princess
• My Father’s gift of Vajra Yogini
• My Royal Great Aunt
• This Is Me in Hollywood in the 80s
• The Promise – Tsem Rinpoche’s inspiring biography now in ebook format!
• My Previous incarnation
• Tsem Rinpoche’s heritage in China
• Tsem Rinpoche’s Torghut Ancestry | 詹杜固仁波切的土尔扈特血统
• My Childhood in Taiwan…Revisiting…
• My Short Bio in Pictures
• It Wasn’t Easy in New Jersey, but My Cousins/Aunts Helped…
• Fotomat and Me | 我和Fotomat
• Tsem Rinpoche in an American ‘Tantric Dress’!!!
• Kyabje Zong Rinpoche Cuts My Hair
• I’m Requesting Ordination in 1987
• Why I Conceived of Kechara Soup Kitchen or KSK
• How Geshe Tsultrim Gyeltsen changed my life
• The Cowshed That Was My Home in Gaden
• Kyabje Zong Rinpoche with Lama Yeshe and Geshe Tsultrim Gyeltsen
• Dharma Work, Attitude & TDL | 佛法工作、态度及图登达杰林佛法中心
• Geshe Tsultrim Gyeltsen’s special thangka | 属于格西簇亲格而辛的非凡唐卡
• My Precious Kyabje Zong Rinpoche statue
• His Holiness Kyabje Zong Rinpoche’s Precious Teaching Collection
• Short sharing about Kyabje Zong Rinpoche | 关于嘉杰宋仁波切的简短分享 | ༧སྐྱབས་རྗེ་ཟོང་རྡོ་རྗེ་འཆང་གི་སྐོར་བགོ་འགྲེམས་མདོར་བསྡུས།

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