Zhagana: Four hamlets and a living mountain landscape

Zhagana lies in Diebu County, Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism gives the village an average elevation above 2,800 metres and explains its name as “stone box.” A Gansu cultural account describes Guanggai peaks to the north, a cliff to the east and a southern opening formed by two peaks. The settlements sit within this mountain enclosure: Dari, Daiba, Yeri and Dongwa, together with Lasang Monastery. The shape of the valley gives the villages a shared setting while leaving each hamlet its own place along the slopes.

Zhagana’s agricultural landscape follows the mountain’s vertical bands. The culture ministry describes cultivation at the foot of the slope, herding across the middle slopes and gathering in the woods above. It also identifies cold high grassland, temperate grassland and warm-temperate deciduous forest among the area’s vegetation belts. Barley fields appear in the provincial account. Farming, pasture and forest resources complement one another across different elevations and habitats.

The Food and Agriculture Organization designated the Zhagana Agriculture-Forestry-Animal Husbandry Composite System as a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System in 2017. FAO describes it as a transitional zone across major landforms and climate zones, where residents developed knowledge for using land, forest, grassland and local species. China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism also records Zhagana among the 2023 Best Tourism Villages. The designations point to the relationship between settlement and land use: hamlets, fields, pasture and woodland form one inhabited mountain landscape.