Lesser Enda Tuins in Qamdo

LU YING

The Lesser Enda Ruins are located 5 km north of the Qamdo County seat. Lying on the northern bank of the Ongqu River, it is close to a village and primary school. Some 800 meters to its east is the Lesser Enda Township, covering an area of 10,000 meters. In October 2000, Tugar, Director of the Cultural Bureau of the Qamdo Prefecture, and I went to view the ruins.
As our vehicle stopped by the highway skirting the ruins, we followed an earthen path upward. A stone tablet stood by an adobe wall, inscribed with “Lesser Enda Ruins.” “Is this all?” I asked myself.

Stone tablet at the Lesser Enda Ruins.

We moved to the Lesser Enda Primary School. Its door was half open. In the playground, some folks were enjoying the sunshine and a few calves grazed leisurely. Director Tugar, having brought me to an empty land, said: “Here was the excavation site.”
The Lesser Enda Ruins were discovered in 1986, and a ditch, which was 2 meters wide and 10 meters long, was dug. Red clay bricks, stone artifacts, bones and pottery were found. They were dated back some 4,000-5,000 years to the Karub Culture in Qamdo. From what was found, the archaeologists came to the conclusion that here was a settlement of primitive society.

According to Director Tugar, the pit was refilled with a view to protecting the site. He showed me a one-kg stone artifact unearthed then.

Faluts shown by the road.

Upon returning home to Beijing, I went to see Hou Shizhu, with the China Cultural Relics Research Institute, showing him fragments of pottery and bones I had brought back. Hou was involved in the excavation of the Karub Ruins in Qamdo, and was an expert in the Karub Culture. He came to the conclusion that these relics were authentic.
Hou took me to the Paleo-Vertebrate Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. There, we talked to Huang Weiwen, an expert in artifacts of the Old Stone Age. However, he failed to give us a definite answer. We then went to Wu Xinzhi, also with the Research Institute.
He examined the bones and came to the conclusion that they were most probably animal bones. As he failed to determine the key parts of the animal bones, he failed to give us a more definite answer.