Labrang In The Eyes Of The Travelers From Rgya-nag

Labrang Monastery was founded in 1709 in Amdo,located in Sangchu(Xiahe) County, Gansu Province today.It was founded and occupicd by the lineage of the Jamyang Zhepas on the central Tibetan Gelukpa model,and developed to be one of the greatest Tibetan Buddhist monasteries ever built.In the earlier of the Republic of China(before 1931),the conflict between MA Qi's army and Labrang Monastery made the Han Chinese Travelers from Rgya-nag(China proper,汉地) such as XUAN Xia-fu,ZHANG Ding-yang,MA He-tian etc.to come to Labrang for investigations.After "the September 18 Incident" in 1931,more and more travelers from Rgya-nag paid their attentions on Labrang,such as ZHANG Qi-yun,FANG Chang-jiang,GU Jie-gang, LI An-zhai,HUANG Ming-xin,MEI Yi-bao etc.Their travel writings about Labrang,in some degree,represented and affected the Rgya-nag-pa(people who lived in the China proper) to understand the Tibetans and the Tibetan culture.This thesis analyzes the background and progress of the investigations of the Travelers from Rgya-nag in and around Labrang during the time of Republic of China(1912-1949) and interprets the travelers' Writings in the view of Ethnology.From those writings we not only could know how Labrang,labrang area and the local societies looked like but greatly help us to understand the development of the ethnicity,patriotism and nationalism in China during the time.