TIEN LAKE

Wade-Giles Tien Ch'ih, also called K'un-ming Ch'ih, Pinyin Dian Chi, or Kunming Chi lake lying to the south of K'un-ming in Yunnan sheng (province), China. Tien Lake lies in the largest group of Yunnanese lake basins, in the eastern part of the province, to the south of the Liang-wang Mountain Range, which reaches an elevation of some 8,740 feet (2,664 m). The lake is some 25 miles (40 km) from north to south, 8 miles (13 km) wide, and about 25 feet (8 m) deep. The mountains rise steeply from the eastern and western shores, but to the north is an extensive alluvial plain, which has been intensively irrigated since the Mongol occupation (12791368) and the early part of the Ming dynasty (13681644). Before this time the area was only at times under Chinese influence. The area was settled by sedentary agricultural peoples from at least as early as the 2nd century BC. It was successively the centre of the independent state of Tien, which became tributary to the Han dynasty (206 BCAD 220) after 109 BC, and of the states of Nan-chao (8th10th century) and Ta-li (10th13th century).