Langmusi is a town administered by Luqu County in Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. The prefecture’s town profile places it 86 kilometres south of the Luqu county seat. Here the Bailong River rises, and a stream runs east through the settlement. The watercourse is the clearest way to understand the town’s geography: its banks and the provincial boundary meet in the same compact place.
From the journal
Langmusi: A town and monastery on either bank
At Langmusi, a stream flowing east divides a Gansu monastery on its north bank from a Sichuan monastery on its south. The town belongs to both sides of the provincial boundary.
In this autonomous prefecture · Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture ↗A southern town in Luqu
Two monasteries along one stream
On the north bank stands Langmusi Monastery in Gansu; on the south bank is Ged Monastery in Sichuan. The two institutions face one another across the stream, while the wider town extends across the provincial line. The same water that begins the Bailong River also gives the settlement its everyday structure, setting the two banks in relation without making them a single monastery. Luqu’s county profile includes Langmusi among its towns and principal attractions.
A river begins in a shared landscape
The Bailong River’s source gives Langmusi significance beyond its administrative position. The stream passes through a town whose religious institutions and homes belong to two provinces, while the river continues east from its headwaters. This combination of source, settlement and boundary is the place’s defining geography: a small channel gathers together the origins of a major river and the life of a cross-border town.