Xikang

西康省 Sikang Province
Capital	Kangting

Xikang or Sikang (西康省 Xīkāng Shěng), is a defunct province of the Republic of China (ROC), comprising most of the Kham region of traditional Tibet, where Khampas, a subgroup of the Tibetan ethnicity, live. The area is also home to a small minority of Mongol ethnicity. Xikang, then known as Chuanbian (川邊), was a "Special Administrative District" of ROC until 1939, when it became an official province. The provincial capital was Kangding from 1939 to 1951, and Ya'an from 1951 to 1955.

History

Following the Wuchang Uprising in October 1911 which led to the downfall of the Qing Dynasty, this region was established as the Chuanbian Special Administrative District (川邊特別行政區) by the newly-founded Republic of China. In June 1930 this region was invaded by the army of Tibet, precipitating the Sino-Tibetan War. With the district locked in internal struggles, no reinforcements were sent to support the Sichuan troops stationed here. As a result, the Tibetan army captured, without encountering much resistance, Garze and Xinlong (Zhanhua). When a negotiated ceasefire failed, Tibetan forces expanded the war attempting to capture parts of southern Qinghai province. In March 1932 their force invaded Qinghai but was defeated by the Qinghai warlord Ma Bufang in July, routing the Tibetan army and driving it back to this district. The Qinghai army captured counties that had fallen into the hands of the Tibetan army since 1919. The victory on the part of the Qinghai army threatened the supply lines to the Tibetan forces in Garze and Xinlong. As a result, this part of the Tibetan army was forced to withdraw. In 1932 Liu Wenhui in cooperation with the Qinghai army, sent out a brigade to attack the Tibetan troops in Garze and Xinlong, eventually occupying them, Dege and other counties east of the Jinshajiang River. In 1934 a Khampa revolt led by the Pandatsang family broke out against the Tibetan government in Lhasa. The Khampa revolutionary leader Pandatsang Rapga was involved. In January 1939, the Chuanbian Special Administrative District officially became a province of the ROC, the Xikang Province. Kesang Tsering was sent by the Chinese to Batang to take control of Xikang, where he formed a local government. He was spread there for the purpose of propagating the Three People's Principle to the Khampa.

In 1950, following the defeat of the Kuomintang by the Communists in the Chinese Civil War, Xikang was split along the Yangtze River into Xikang to the east and a separate Qamdo Territory (昌都地区) to the west. Qamdo was merged into Tibet Autonomous Region in 1965. The rest of Xikang was merged into Sichuan province in 1955.

See also

• Map showing the locations of provinces of the ROC
• Kham