Biru County (Tibetan: འབྲི་རུ་རྫོང་།; Chinese: 比如县) is the most populated county within Nagqu of the Tibet Autonomous Region, China. The name means "female yak". Either of the following pronunciations can be considered correct in Standard Tibetan: [bìru] ~ [pìru] (conventionally written Biru in English) or [ɖìru] ~ [ʈìru] (conventionally Driru).

Geography

Biru lies in the southwest part of the former province of Kham. To its east is Chamdo and to its west Nagchu. Biru is located on the Gyalmo Ngulchu River (upper part of Salween River). Diru is bordered by Sog County to the northwest and the extreme east of Banbar County་, is also surrounded by Lhari County to the south, and extreme north to the Nagchu county.

Sepu Kangri is located in the county.

Climate

Climate data for Biru, elevation 3,940 m (12,930 ft), (1991–2020 normals)
MonthJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecYear
Mean daily maximum °C (°F)2.3 (36.1)4.6 (40.3)8.1 (46.6)12.1 (53.8)15.9 (60.6)19.0 (66.2)20.7 (69.3)20.8 (69.4)18.2 (64.8)12.9 (55.2)7.9 (46.2)4.3 (39.7)12.2 (54.0)
Daily mean °C (°F)−6.3 (20.7)−3.5 (25.7)0.3 (32.5)4.2 (39.6)7.9 (46.2)11.4 (52.5)12.9 (55.2)12.6 (54.7)10.0 (50.0)4.7 (40.5)−1.2 (29.8)−5.2 (22.6)4.0 (39.2)
Mean daily minimum °C (°F)−13.3 (8.1)−10.4 (13.3)−6.2 (20.8)−2.1 (28.2)2.0 (35.6)5.9 (42.6)7.6 (45.7)7.2 (45.0)4.8 (40.6)−0.8 (30.6)−7.6 (18.3)−12.4 (9.7)−2.1 (28.2)
Average precipitation mm (inches)5.8 (0.23)7.0 (0.28)10.0 (0.39)16.8 (0.66)66.2 (2.61)132.4 (5.21)125.4 (4.94)105.6 (4.16)86.8 (3.42)36.2 (1.43)5.3 (0.21)3.8 (0.15)601.3 (23.69)
Average precipitation days (≥ 0.1 mm)5.05.57.49.717.623.422.020.420.110.93.52.9148.4
Average snowy days6.68.011.112.66.10.7000.38.24.94.262.7
Average relative humidity (%)42404147566467676758464053
Mean monthly sunshine hours161.5160.2186.3203.6216.3189.8190.5196.4185.7196.6180.2173.22,240.3
Percentage possible sunshine50515052514544485156575551
Source: China Meteorological Administration

Administrative divisions

Biru county contains the following 2 towns and 8 townships:

NameChineseHanyu PinyinTibetanWylie
Towns
Biru Town比如镇Bǐrú zhènའབྲི་རུ་གྲོང་རྡལ།'bri ru grong rdal
Shachu Town夏曲镇Xiàqǔ zhènཤག་ཆུ་གྲོང་རྡལ།shag chu grong rdal
Townships
Benkar Township白嘎乡Báigā xiāngབན་དཀར་ཤང་།ban dkar shang
Latang Township (Dawatang)达塘乡Dátáng xiāngཟླ་ཐང་ཤང་།zla thang shang
Qagzê Township恰则乡Qiàzé xiāngཆགས་རྩེ་ཤང་།chags rtse shang
Zala Township扎拉乡Zhālā xiāngརྩྭ་ལ་ཤང་།rtswa la shang
Yangshok Township羊秀乡Yángxiù xiāngགཡང་ཤོག་ཤང་།g.yang shog shang
Shamchu Township香曲乡Xiāngqǔ xiāngགཤམ་ཆུ་ཤང་།gsham chu shang
Lenchu Township良曲乡Liángqǔ xiāngརླན་ཆུ་ཤང་།rlan chu shang
Tsachu Township茶曲乡Cháqǔ xiāngཚྭ་ཆུ་ཤང་།tshwa chu shang

Demographics

At the 2020 PRC census, the county's population was 72,618, of whom:

Name of groupNumberPercentage
Tibetans98%
Han
Bai
Uyghurs
Others

Gallery

  • Biru Town from southbank of Gyalmo Ngulchu
  • Biru Town from the hill to the north
  • Tsachu/Caqu village
  • A meander of the river in Biru from the north bank
  • Same meander of the river from the south bank
  • View of a meander from the top
  • Sepu Kangri
  • A monastery stupa in Biru
  • The Biru Skull Wall, a local funerary practice