Border Trade
The Tangke International Market in Burang County is a center of foreign economic and trade activities in Ngari. Burang, covering an area of 15,600 square km, is located in the south of the Ngari Prefecture. It borders on India and Nepal, having a 414 km border and 21 natural passageways across the border. Burang County has been the southwestern door into Ngari from past to present. Because of its special geographic location, border trade has existed for a long time, making Burang an important port for import and export of the Tibet Autonomous Region.
The county town of Burang is situated on a long narrow gully and consists of an old town district and a new town district. There is a distance of about 2 km between them. Kongquehe, one of the four largest rivers in Ngari, runs past the county town, which has an elevation of 3,900 meters, the lowest in the county. The Tangka International Market is located on the side of Dalaga Mountain to the northwest of Kongquehe River. There are many caves at the foot of the mountain, where, it has been reported, the inhabitants in the border areas of India and Nepal lived when they came here on business trips during the past hundreds of years. As most of the traders were from Nepal, the place was nicknamed the "Nepalese Mansion." With the exception of a few caves that are still occupied by inhabitants of border areas, most caves have been abandoned. These smoked caves remind visitors of busy scenes of border trade in the past.
Two suspension bridges lead to the Tangke Market. Close to the end of one bridge and adjacent to the old town district, a market formed naturally, called "bridge-end market," where peddlers from hinterland Chinese regions and a small number of residents from the Nepalese border areas trade. The Tangke Market is where Indian and Nepalese business people, as well as a handful of local Tibetans, do business. These two markets, one on the east bank and the other on the west bank of the river, have about 3 km between them and have formed a relatively independent, but also interrelated, commercial pattern.
According to historical records, the people-to-people border trade in Burang County started 500 years ago. At the end of the 1950s, the Chinese Government officially approved the establishment of the "international market," which has thereafter become an important trading port in the Tibet Autonomous Region. In 1995, the State Council approved the establishment of the Class II port in Ngari. Over the past four decades, border trade in the Ngari Prefecture has become increasingly brisk and the volume of transactions has continued to rise. In 1961, the total volume of import and export was 505,000 yuan. Only 61 Indian and Nepalese business people conducted business at the port in 1960. The number of business people increased to 157 in 1961.
On September 18, 1962, at the approval of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nepalese business people were allowed to build houses at the Burang International Market, and the State collected a very small land tax, one yuan per room annually, as a token of exercising sovereignty. The relaxed State policies resulted in unprecedented prosperity at Burang market. According to the records at that time, "trading activities are concentrated at one port, which is crowded with people, domestic animals and goods." At one time, the market was home to more than 100 tents, with a population of over 1,000 people, between 10,000-20,000 domestic animals, and commodities and goods piling up like mountains. The market is very brisk.
With the development of border trade, the population in Burang County has grown. In 1987, the county had a population of 6,957, which rose to 7,500 in 1997. The opening of the port has also helped attract a large number of tourists. Each year, Burang receives more than 3,000 overseas tourists and an even greater number of pilgrims and Chinese tourists to the holy mountain and lake. In order to strengthen unified management of the port, improve business conditions and tap market potential, Burang County set up a port office and required an appropriation of 5 million yuan for renovating the existing market and building a new market of 3,000 square meters.
The year 1995 saw 116 Indian and Nepalese business people, 169 business people from inland China and 34 locals doing business in Burang. Indian and Nepalese business people deal mainly in cloth, wool, bed sheets, brown sugar, French perfume, Indian perfume, hair oil, cosmetics and jewelry. Some Indian and Nepalese business people barter brown sugar and general merchandise for goods, including wool, from local residents. A number of Indian and Nepalese business people still choose to live in low earthen one-, two-, or three-bedroom houses with roofs covered with plastic tarpaulins and canvas. They live and do business at home.
The market is 2 km away from the united inspection office building, which houses Burang customs, the frontier inspection station, the hygiene inspection office, the commodity inspection office and the animal inspection and quarantine office. Kongquehe River runs between them. Because of a lack of transportation facilities, Indian and Nepalese business people have to use donkeys and horses to carry all their goods.
Bidain came from Nepal to do business in Burang in 1967, when he was 18 years old. In the beginning, he dealt mainly in rice, flour, cloth and sugar. Now, he has been living in Burang for 30 years and has established a reputation. He is engaged in wholesale goods, partnered with various trade departments in the Ngari Prefecture. In 1996 his business turnover reached 400,000 yuan and he made a profit of 100,000 yuan. An Indian businessman nicknamed "king of land star" followed his father to do business in Burang between 1959 and 1964. Because of intense Sino-Indian relations, his business in Tibet stopped. But since 1992, he has been a regular visitor to Burang, dealing in sugar and articles for daily use.
The Burang International Market is a seasonal port open four months a year, between July 15 and October 15.
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