What is "taktser"

Taktser or Tengster (, Place on the Heights; ) is a village in the Western Chinese province of Qinghai (or the Tibetan cultural region of Amdo).

Taktser was originally an area of pasture land for the larger village of Balangtsa, about two hours walk away in the valley. Cattle were brought to feed on the fertile grazing lands in summer, which caused them to give very rich milk. Later, when people realized that this was also a good place to farm, permanent houses were built, and the village comprised about thirty cottages by the time Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, was born.

The village is on the route from Xining, which was the seat of local Chinese government administration, to Labrang Tashi Khyi, the largest monastery in the area after the famous Kumbum Monastery.

Taktser is the Tibetan name of the village of Hongya (红崖村 Hóngyá Cūn, Hongaizi in the local dialect), together with 13 other villages forming the Shihuiyao Township , of Ping'an County, in Haidong Prefecture. Despite it being under centuries of Chinese-speaking environment, it still belongs to the Tibetan cultural region of Amdo. Taktser is not, as it is usually taken to be, in the proximity of the Kumbum Monastery, rather it is approximately east of the monastery, and around southwest of the town of Ping'an (平安镇, Tibetan: Bayan khar), which is also the seat of the government for the county of the same name.