Gyamda, Tibet, China

Localización	Gyamda, Tibet (རྒྱ་མདའ), China
Años en funcionamiento	1890-1891
Véase también	Wikidata (Q5623957), Wikipedia [EN], [MS]

(en) In his 1907 article, E. H. C. Walsh stated that the "Kong-par" tangkas (Craig# 60 and Y# 13a) were struck at Giamda in the Kong-po province, about 60 miles east of Lhasa. Walsh spent about 2 years on the Tibetan border as Assistant Commissioner for Tibetan Affairs and then visited Lhasa with the Younghusband Expedition in 1901, so he was well informed about Tibet and his information is mainly reliable. Giamda was the only Tibetan mint ever to strike coins away from the surroundings of Lhasa, and it is hard to believe that all the "Kong-par" tangkas were struck there, as it was a small, insignificant place. The name "Kong-par" clearly refers to the place of minting, Kong-po, but that name may not have been used before the turn of the century. Rockhill, in 1892, refers to this type of coin as the "Bo-gi Gyalpa-gi Tangka" (The King of Tibet's tangka), so the change of name could indicate that only the latest coins of this type were struck in Kong-po province.

Traditionally, silver came to Tibet from China, but in the mid 19th century, trade with Bengal increased and, for each of the 10 years between 1876 and 1886, Bengal had a trade deficit with Tibet amounting to over 1.5 million rupees and presumably balanced by the export of silver rupees to Tibet. Many of the rupees passed through Tibet to China to pay for the import of tea and were either melted down at Tachienlu on the China-Tibet border for onward transmission to China proper, or remained in the Sino-Tibet border area, where they were accepted as currency. Some of the rupees, however, remained in Lhasa and were used to provide the silver for the Tibetan coinage. Between 1886 and 1890, however, due to a border dispute, the Tibetan exports to Bengal reduced, and there was a small trade Surplus for Bengal. After any initial stockpile had been used up, Tibet would have looked to China to provide silver for the coinage. As fuel was scarce in Lhasa and Giamda was in a wooded area on the route from the Chinese border, it would have been reasonable to open a mint there and to take advantage of the availability of fuel. By 1891-1892, however, the border dispute was over, and the trade balance changed dramatically, with a surplus for Tibet of over half a million rupees in under two years. With silver now coming from India again the mint at Giamda would no longer have served any useful purpose.

The "Kong-par tangkas" of the Y# A13 type are dated 15-24 and 15-25 (AD 1390 and 1891), and it is very likely that coins of this type were struck at Giamda, the old design being used to differentiate the issues of the provincial mint from the Garden-tangkas which were being struck about the same time in Lhasa, The coins dated 15-24 are very common, and must have been struck in large numbers, but those dated 15-25 are less common, suggesting that the mint closed during 1891, when silver again became available from Bengal.

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Sources:
• Fred Kempf; 1969. “A Primary Report on Native Tibetan Coins”. Seattle, Washington, United States.
• Nicholas G. Rhodes; 1978. "Tibetan Mints". Oriental Numismatic Society Information Sheet, number 19, Prestwood, United Kingdom.