Qualla: Kham https://qualla.com/kham en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:37 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/w/j/k/y/kham-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Kham https://qualla.com/kham Kham: Introduction https://qualla.com/kham/ Photo credit Tibet&neighbors_Locator_map.svg: Keithonearth Map_of_Tibet_Ü-Tsang_Amdo_and_Kham.jpg: Gruschke derivative work: Kmusser (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0. The name itself means frontier. In Tibetan, "Do Kham" describes the convergence of rivers and valleys at the edge of the known world -- the place where the Tibetan Plateau's high grasslands break apart into the deepest gorges on Earth. Four of Asia's great rivers -- the Mekong, the Yangtze, the Yalong, and the Salween -- carve parallel trenches through the Hengduan Mountains here, separated by ridges that can rise 3,000 meters from river to summit. Kham is one of Tibet's three traditional provinces, but it has never been an easy place to govern. The Khampas -- its original inhabitants -- were warriors, horse riders, and traders who answered to local chieftains and monasteries rather than distant capitals. James Hilton is said to have drawn on accounts of this region when he imagined Shangri-La.

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Image: Tibet&neighbors_Locator_map.svg: Keithonearth Map_of_Tibet_Ü-Tsang_Amdo_and_Kham.jpg: Gruschke derivative work: Kmusser (talk) | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/j/k/y/kham-wp/wjky-kham-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Kham: Land of Gorges and Grass https://qualla.com/kham/ Photo credit Reurinkjan, CC BY 2.0. Kham's geography dictates everything. The Hengduan Mountains run northwest to southeast in a corrugated wall of ridges and canyons, their rivers flowing in parallel like strings on an instrument. The Mekong and the Yangtze pass within 20 kilometers of each other at one point, sep...

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Image: Reurinkjan | CC BY 2.0

]]> Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/j/k/y/kham-wp/wjky-kham-land-of-gorges-and-grass.mp3 0:06 2 full Kham: Warrior Horsemen of the Plateau https://qualla.com/kham/ Photo credit Antoine Taveneaux, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Khampas earned a reputation across Central Asia. Renowned for their marksmanship and horsemanship, they were the people other Tibetans described with a mix of admiration and wariness. Many Khampas in the northern Hor States claimed Mongolian heritage; one-third of Kham's resi...

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Image: Antoine Taveneaux | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/j/k/y/kham-wp/wjky-kham-warrior-horsemen-of-the-plateau.mp3 0:06 3 full Kham: Contested Ground https://qualla.com/kham/ Photo credit Antoine Taveneaux, CC BY-SA 3.0. Kham's history reads as a catalog of competing ambitions. In 1837, the chieftain Gompo Namgyal of Nyarong launched wars of expansion against the Hor States, Litang, Dege, and Batang, briefly unifying eastern Kham under his rule. After the British invasion of Tibet in 1904 alarmed...

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Image: Antoine Taveneaux | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/j/k/y/kham-wp/wjky-kham-contested-ground.mp3 0:06 4 full Kham: Tea, Horses, and Gold Dust https://qualla.com/kham/ Photo credit chensiyuan, CC BY-SA 4.0. Before the borders hardened, Kham lived by trade. The ancient Tea Horse Road -- the network of mule trails connecting Ya'an in Sichuan to Lhasa -- passed directly through the region, and Batang served as one of its most important caravan stops. Compressed bricks of tea moved west...

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Image: chensiyuan | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/j/k/y/kham-wp/wjky-kham-tea-horses-and-gold-dust.mp3 0:06 5 full