Sometimes one of the two oracles goes into a trance and is able to indicate where the new Dalai Lama lives. In the case of the present Dalai Lama, the oracle of Samye, after going into a trance, following a fruitless four-year search, advised that the investigation should be extended to the Chinese province of Chinghai, who Amdo region is largely populated by Tibetans. Incidentally the great Tsong Ka-pa was born in Amdo. Here, along the shores of the Lake Koko Nor, the fourteenth Dalai Lama, child of a humble peasant family, was discovered.
Ma Pu-fang, who rules Chinghai, is a trim, soldierly man with a very Muslim-looking beard, and he is the third member of a local family dynasty that has controlled the province for the past two decades. His father, Ma Ch'i, became provincial chief in 1929, soon after Chinghai was made into a province. Ma Ch'i was succeeded by his brother, Ma Ling, and then, in 1938, Ma Pu-fang inherited the governorship from his uncle.
The river begins its journey in the Kokoshili Mountains, which rise out of the largest plateau in the world, the Tibetan-Chinghai plateau. The southwestern part of this plateau lies in the country of Tibet. The northeastern part of it belongs to the Chinese province of Chinghai.
1982 March 7, “Muslims lose religious freedom through Communist persecution”, in 自由中國週報 [Free China Weekly][4], volume XX, number 39, Taipei, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 3, column 3:
According to a military report by Peng Te-huai, between 1949 and 1950 in Suiyuan Province, 58,000 Muslims were killed by the Chinese Communists. In addition, according to the "governor" of Chinghai Province, 340 believers there were executed on charges of gathering together at mosques, which the Chinese Communists interpreted as an action in violation of Communist authority.
