Jilibulake

Jilibulake appears in the Qing itinerary linking Lhasa with Xining through the upper Yangtze country. The eighteenth-century Weizang tongzhi places it sixty li beyond Yike Nuomuhan Wubashi and forty li before Yindamu, with the Amuda River farther along the route. The place was one named stage within a long sequence of river crossings, camps and overland journeys across the plateau.

The same itinerary describes the wider corridor as inhabited by Tibetan and Mongol communities practising differing combinations of cultivation, herding and hunting. It also records the annual journeys of representatives sent towards Beijing by the Dalai Lama and Panchen authorities. They travelled in the fourth lunar month; the route was considered impassable in winter. Jilibulake's significance in this record is therefore its place in seasonal communication between Tibetan religious centres, Qinghai and the Qing court, with the timing of travel constrained by the highland environment.