Abstract: In this paper, the characteristics of drought disasters and their driving forces in the agricultural regions of east Qinghai Province during the period from 1421 to 1950 were researched after collecting and analyzing the relevant historical documents. The results show that 152 drought disasters occurred in the agricultural regions of east Qinghai Province during the period from 1421 to 1950, including 64 slight drought disasters, 63 moderate drought disasters, 20 serious drought disasters and 5 extremely serious drought disasters, they accounted for 42.11%, 41.45%, 13.16% and 3.29% of the total respectively, and drought disaster occurred once every 3.5 years. There were 5 highfrequency periods of occurring drought disasters (1481-1499, 1711-1721, 1758-1780, 1861-1900 and 1921-1940), and drought disaster occurred once every 1.55 years; there were also 3 lowfrequency periods (1421-1480, 1781-1830 and 1541-1600), and drought disaster occurred once every 8.1years. Wavelet analysis shows that there were the 50-58, 25-32 and 10-15year longterm periods of drought grades in the agricultural regions of east Qinghai, and there was also a 3-5year shortterm period. Drought occurrence in the agricultural regions of east Qinghai was the joint result of climate change, uneven spatiotemporal distribution of precipitation and human activities, especially the effects of climatic factors, and then those of human factors, such as land reclamation and wars.

Key words: drought disaster, drought grade, drought period, agricultural region, Qinghai Province