Drayab

Drayab, or Chaya, lies in a country of high mountains and deep valleys in eastern Tibet. Routes through its valleys connect the country around Chamdo with lands nearer the upper Yangtze. Sheltered lower ground has a milder climate than the surrounding heights, giving this part of Kham a different appearance from the cold open plateau.

According to local tradition, the place took its name from a site where the Gelug teacher Drakpa Gyatso practised in the seventeenth century. In 1719 the Qing emperor granted the lands of Drayab to the fourth incarnation of a lama of Magön Monastery, recognising him as a nomonhan and providing a seal. Religious estates and their patrons thus shaped local authority in the early eighteenth century.