Gar Günsa is situated on the bank of the Gartang River, one of the headwaters of the Indus River, at the base of the Kailash Range, at an elevation of 4,270 metres (14,010 ft).
Gar Günsa, along with its sister encampment Gar Yarsa used to be the administrative headquarters for Western Tibet (Ngari). The headquarters was moved to Shiquanhe in 1965.
Gar ValleyMap of the Gar valley by Strachey (1851) showing Gar Gunsa and Gar Yarsa. The Gartang river joins Sengge Zangbo at a location called Tagle, with Langmar and Rala nearby.Map of the Gar valley in a Survey of India map (1936), showing Gartok (Gar Yarsa) and Gar Dzong (Gar Gunsa)
Gar (Wylie: sGar) means "encampment". During the 15th and 16th centuries, the Karma Kagyu lamas moved through the length and breadth of Tibet in "Great Encampments" or garchen.[3][4]
The term is also used often for military camps.[5][6]
Gar Günsa means the "winter camp".[7][8]
The ninth century bilingual text Mahāvyutpatti translated günsa as Sanskrit हैमन्तिकावासः (haimantikāvāsaḥ), literally, the residence of the winter season.[9]
Even though Gar Yarsa has acquired the name "Gartok" in popular parlance, officially, "Gartok" consisted of both Gar Günsa and Gar Yarsa (the "summer camp"). The latter is forty miles upstream on Gartang at a higher altitude.[10]
Gar Günsa, along with its sister encampment Gar Yarsa, was referred to as Gartok, and served as Lhasa's administrative headquarters for Western Tibet (Ngari) after it was conquered from Ladakh in 1684. A senior official called Garpön was stationed here.[10][11]
The Garpöns lived in Gar Gunsa for nine months in the year, and stayed at Gar Yarsa during August–October.[12]
But in the British nomenclature, the name "Gartok" was applied only to Gar Yarsa and the practice continues till date.[10]
After the Chinese annexation of Tibet, Gar Günsa continued to function as the headquarters of Western Tibet till 1965, after which it was moved to Shiquanhe. It was felt that the living conditions in Gar Günsa were extremely difficult.[13]
^Sullivan, Brenton (2020), Building a Religious Empire: Tibetan Buddhism, Bureaucracy, and the Rise of the Gelukpa, University of Pennsylvania Press, pp. 37–38, ISBN978-0-8122-5267-5: "During this pivotal period of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, [Gyelwang Karmapa's] power was manifest in his Great Encampment, garchen in Tibetan. The garchen's influence included even outposts in Ngari of far western Tibet and it maintained a significant presence at the major pilgrimage site of Tsari, or Crystal Mountain, along the border with Arunachal Pradesh."
^Chakraverty, Anjan (1998), Sacred Buddhist Painting, Lustre Press, p. 66, ISBN978-81-7436-042-7: "Karmapa lamas who used to be on the move constantly lived in large tent cities with great pomp. The mobile Karmapa encampments were known as Karma Garchen and thus the style patronised in the encampments was labelled the Karma Gadri style (the style of the Karma encampment)."
^
Stein, R. A. (1972). Tibetan Civilization. London: Faber and Faber. pp. 122–123 – via archive.org.
^
Eric Teichman, Travels of a Consular Officer in Eastern Tibet: Together with a History of the Relations Between China, Tibet and India (Cambridge: The University Press, 1922), p. 130.
^Encyclopædia Britannica, Vol. 10 (Encyclopædia Britannica, 1973; ISBN0852291736), p. 3.
^John Keay, History of World Exploration (The Royal Geographical Society; Mallard Press, 1991), p. 76.
^ abcRawling, The Great Plateau (1905), p. 272: "Gartok in reality consists of two distinct places situated forty miles apart. The one we visited is known as Gar Yarsa or Summer Quarters, and the other, which is also on the Indus but at a lower altitude, Gar Gunsa or Winter Quarters."
