Autonomous prefectures (Chinese: 自治州; pinyin: Zìzhìzhōu) are one type of autonomous areas of China, existing at the prefectural level, with either ethnic minorities forming over 50% of the population or being the historic home of significant minorities. All autonomous prefectures are mostly dominated, in population, by the Han Chinese. The official name of an autonomous prefecture includes the most dominant minority in that region, sometimes two, rarely three. For example, a Kazakh (Kazak in official naming system) prefecture may be called Kazak Zizhizhou. Like all other prefectural level divisions, autonomous prefectures are divided into county level divisions. There is one exception: Ili Kazak Autonomous Prefecture contains two prefectures of its own. Under the Constitution of the People's Republic of China, autonomous prefectures cannot be abolished.
List of autonomous prefectures
Ethnic composition of autonomous prefectures (2010)
Former autonomous prefectures of China
Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, also known as Aba (Tibetan: རྔ་བ་བོད་རིགས་དང་ཆང་རིགས་རང་སྐྱོང་ཁུལ་, Wylie: rnga ba bod rigs cha'ang rigs rang skyong khul ; Qiang: Ggabba Shbea Rrmea nyujugvez zhou; simplified Chinese: 阿坝藏族羌族自治州; traditional Chinese: 阿壩藏族羌族自治州), is an autonomous prefecture of northwestern Sichuan, bordering Gansu to the north and northeast and Qinghai to the northwest. Its seat is in the Barkam, and it has an area of 83,201 km2 (32,124 sq mi). The population was 919,987 in late 2013.
The county of Wenchuan in Ngawa is the site of the epicenter of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, in which over 20,000 of its residents died and 40,000 injured.
History and Names
In the 8th century the Gyalrong area was visited by Vairotsana.
In 1410 Je Tsongkhapa's student Tshakho Ngawang Tapa established the first Gelug monastery in the area called "Gyalrong".
In contemporary history, most of Ngawa was under the 16th Administrative Prefecture of Szechwan (Chinese:四川省第十六行政督察區), which was established by the Republic of China (ROC).