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KhamKham (Tibetan: ཁམས, Simplified Chinese: 康, Pinyin: Kāng) province is one of three ancient provinces comprising traditional Tibet (the other two being Amdo and U-Tsang). During the Republic of China's rule over mainland China (1911-1949), most of the region was called Xikang Province (西康省). Kham comprises a total of 50 contemporary counties, distributed between the Chinese provinces of Sichuan (16 counties), Yunnan (3 counties), and Qinghai (6 counties) as well as the eastern portion of the Tibet Autonomous Region (25 counties). Kham has a rugged terrain characterized by mountain ridges and gorges running from northwest to southeast. Numerous rivers, including the Mekong, Yangtze, Yalong, and the Salween flow through Kham. From the time of collapse of the Tibetan kingship in the 10th century until the 1950s, the people of Kham have maintained a large degree of independence from both Lhasa and China, aided by the rugged nature of their homeland. Kham itself was never controlled by a single king, but was comprised of a patchwork of two dozen or more chiefdoms. In 1932, an agreement signed between Chinese warlord Liu Wenhui and Tibetan forces formalized the partition of Kham into two regions: Eastern Kham, which was administered by Chinese forces, and Western Kham, which was administered by Tibet. Eastern Kham subsequently became the actual area of control of China's Xikang province. The border between eastern and western Kham is the Yangtze River. In 1950, following the defeat of the Kuomintang rulers of China by communist forces in the Chinese Civil War, the People's Liberation Army entered western Kham. Western Kham was then set up as a separate Qamdo Territory (昌都地区), then merged into Tibet Autonomous Region in 1960. Meanwhile, Xikang province, comprising eastern Kham, was merged into Sichuan province in 1955. The border between Sichuan and Tibet Autonomous Region has remained the Yangtze River. External link
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