Chumar ཆུ་མུར་ Chumur | |
---|---|
Village | |
Coordinates: 32°40′09″N78°35′43″E / 32.6693°N 78.5954°E | |
Country | ![]() |
Union Territory | Ladakh |
District | Leh |
Tehsil | Nyoma |
Government | |
• Type | Halqa Panchayat |
Elevation | 5,100 m (16,700 ft) |
Languages | |
• Official | Ladakhi, Hindi |
Time zone | UTC+5:30 (IST) |
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Chumar or Chumur (Tibetan : ཆུ་མུར་, Wylie : chu mur) is a village and the centre of nomadic grazing region located in south-eastern Ladakh, India. It is in Rupshu block, south of the Tso Moriri lake, on the bank of the Parang River (or Pare Chu), close to Ladakh's border with Tibet. [1] [2] Since 2012, China has disputed the border in this area, though the Chumur village itself is undisputed. [3] [4]
Chumar is along the course of Pare Chu river, close to Ladakh's border with Tibet. The Pare Chu river originates in India's Himachal Pradesh, flows through Ladakh, and turns southeast near Chumar to flow into what the British called the 'Tsotso district' (now Tsosib Sumkyil Township) in Tibet's Tsamda County. After about 80 miles, Pare Chu reenters Himachal Pradesh again to join the Spiti River. [5]
The Chumar settlement itself is in a side valley of Pare Chu, on the bank of a stream, called Chumur Tokpo that flows down from Mount Shinowu. ( 32°42′31″N78°43′38″E / 32.7087°N 78.7273°E ). [lower-alpha 1] There is also a historic gompa (Buddhist temple) near the village and a Chumur monastery further upstream. [6] Along the course of Pare Chu and its tributary streams are numerous pastures and campgrounds utilised by the pastoral nomads of Rupshu. Some of them close to Pare Chu are listed as Sarlale, Takdible, Nirale, Tible, Lemarle and Chepzile.
Chepzile is near a small hamlet called Chepzi which boasts some farmlands. Two tributaries join Pare Chu near the hamlet: the Kyumsalung Panglung (or simply Panglung) stream from the east, and the Chepzilung (or simply Chepzi) stream from the west. The Chepzilung originates below the Gya Peak, a key point on the border between Spiti (Himachal Pradesh) and Tibet. [7] According to the map drawn by Frederic Drew, who worked as a geologist in the administration of Jammu and Kashmir, these two tributaries were border rivers of Ladakh. The notes to the map he provided state that the subjects of Jammu and Kashmir grazed their cattle in the pasturelands up to the boundary, while the subjects of Tibet did likewise on their side. [8] [9] (Map 2)
By the time of Indian independence in 1947, the Indians appear to have conceded part of the valley of Chepzilung to the Tibetans. [lower-alpha 2] When independent India defined its boundaries in 1954, it also withdrew from the Panglung river east of Chepzi, and set the watershed ridge as the boundary. On the Pare Chu river itself, the Indian-defined border is five miles south of Chumar, which is approximately two miles north of Chepzi. [11] This allows the Tibetan graziers unrestricted access to both the tributary rivers of Pare Chu at Chepzi.
The combined effect of these decisions gave the appearance of a "bulge" in Indian territory near the Pare Chu river. The Indian government justified it on the grounds that the Ladakh's inhabitants had traditionally used the grazing lands along Pare Chu right up to Chepzi. [12]
The people of Chumar claim to have continued to use the farmland and grazing grounds at Chepzi until the recent past. They say that their access to these lands has been blocked by the People's Liberation Army in recent years. [13] [14] The local nobility family of Rupshu continues to own the farmland and a palace at Chepzi. [15] The Indian Army has said that the Chepzi grazing grounds were "beyond the Indian borders." [16] But the locals are adamant that the Army does not understand their traditional grazing systems. [17]
In the 1960 boundary talks with India, China claimed a boundary north of the Indian claim line. However it was still south of the general ridge line running across the Pare Chu valley. [18]
By 2012, China was claiming a boundary further north, representing a "bulge" of its own territory, as shown in the United States Office of the Geographer's boundary datasets. (Map 3)
Chumar has been one of the most active areas on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in terms of interactions between Chinese and Indian troops. Located 190 km northwest of Zanda, it had long been an area of discomfort for the Chinese troops as, until 2014, Chumar had been one of the relatively few places along the Sino-Indian border where the Chinese had no roads near the LAC. [19] [20]
According to Phunchok Stobdan, "In Chumar, China probably wants a straight border from PT (point) 4925 to PT 5318 to bring the Tible-Mane area under its control", in essence removing the bulge along the LAC at Chumar. [21] The Chinese opened up this new front of the border dispute in Chumar in 2012, prior to that, the border here was the International Border and not the Line of Actual Control. [3] [4]
As part of the resolution to the 2013 Depsang standoff, the Indian side agreed to take down some bunkers in Chumar in return for the Chinese withdrawing from the Depsang standoff area. [22] [23]
A road from Chumar leads up to the LAC. Along this road near the LAC, there is an Indian post at Point 30R, or known simply as 30R. 30R gets its name from being at a sharp elevation of 30 metres as compared to its surroundings. [24] PLA patrols often come up to 30R. [22] However they are at a tactical disadvantage since vehicles cannot come up to 30R; they have even tried using horses to enter the area. [24] [22] The Chinese have tried constructing a road across 30R, including in 2014 when they claimed they had orders to build a road till Tible, but they have been stopped from doing so by India. [24] [22] During the 2014 standoff here, Chinese troops had also positioned themselves on 30R, and had even heavy machinery with them for road construction. [25] Chinese troops have also been reported to have removed Indian surveillance cameras from the area. [22] The 2014 faceoff at Chumar, which started on 10 September, started days before the Chinese leader Xi Jinping visited India and continued even as he was in India. [26] Indian media quoting army source said that nearly 1000 Chinese soldiers had entered Indian territory in the Chumur sector on the day Xi was in India. [27]
Chumar is connected by arable roads to Rayul Lake nearly 50 km in the north, Hanle nearly 100 km in the east, Tso Moriri nearly 60 km north, Meroo on NH-3 nearly 225 km north.
In 2020, construction of a new ~150 km long road linking Chumar in Ladakh to Pooh in Himachal Pradesh was approved. [28]
The Line of Actual Control (LAC), in the context of the Sino-Indian border dispute, is a notional demarcation line that separates Indian-controlled territory from Chinese-controlled territory. The concept was introduced by Chinese premier Zhou Enlai in a 1959 letter to Jawaharlal Nehru as the "line up to which each side exercises actual control", but rejected by Nehru as being incoherent. Subsequently, the term came to refer to the line formed after the 1962 Sino-Indian War.
Ladakh is an administrative territory of India that has been under its control since 1947. The geographical region of Ladakh union territory is the highest altitude plateau region in India, incorporating parts of the Himalayan and Karakoram mountain ranges and the upper Indus River and valley.
Rupshu is a high elevation plateau and valley and an eponymous community development block in southeast Ladakh. It is between the Startsapuk Tso and Tso Moriri, and west of Mahe.
Hanle is a large historic village in the Indian union territory of Ladakh. The revenue village of Hanle comprises six hamlets — Bhok, Dhado, Punguk, Khuldo, Naga and Tibetan Refugee habitation —within 1073 sq km Changthang Wildlife Sanctuary in Changthang plateau. It is the site of the 17th-century Hanle Monastery (gompa) of the Drukpa Kagyu branch of Tibetan Buddhism. Hanle is located in the Hanle River valley on an old branch of the ancient Ladakh–Tibet trade route. Hanle is the home of Hanle observatory, the tenth highest optical telescope in the world in India's first dark-sky preserve.
The Sino–Indian border dispute is an ongoing territorial dispute over the sovereignty of two relatively large, and several smaller, separated pieces of territory between China and India. The first of the territories, Aksai Chin, is administered by China and claimed by India; it is mostly uninhabited high-altitude wasteland but with some significant pasture lands at the margins. It lies at the intersection of Kashmir, Tibet and Xinjiang, and is crossed by China's Xinjiang-Tibet Highway; the other disputed territory is south of the McMahon Line, in the area formerly known as the North-East Frontier Agency and now a state called Arunachal Pradesh. It is administered by India and claimed by China. The McMahon Line was signed between British India and Tibet to form part of the 1914 Simla Convention, but the latter was never ratified by China. China disowns the McMahon Line agreement, stating that Tibet was not independent when it signed the Simla Convention.
The Depsang Plains, a high-altitude gravelly plain in the northwest portion of the disputed Aksai Chin region of Kashmir, divided into Indian and Chinese administered portions by a Line of Actual Control. India controls the western portion of the plains as part of Ladakh, while the eastern portion is controlled by China and claimed by India. The Line of Control with Pakistan-administered Gilgit-Baltistan is 80 kilometres (50 mi) west of the Depsang Plains, with the Siachen Glacier in-between. Ladakh's traditional trade route to Central Asia passed through the Depsang Plains, with the Karakoram Pass lying directly to its north.
Nyoma is a principal village of southern Ladakh in India, the headquarters of an eponymous subdivision, tehsil, community development block and Indian Air Force Base in the Leh district. It is located on the bank of the Indus river after its 90-degree bend near Dungti east of Nyoma and before the valley narrows to a gorge near Mahe northwest of Nyoma. The Nyoma tehsil and subdivision cover all of southern Ladakh, including the Rupshu plains south of Nyoma, the Indus valley of Skakjung north of Nyoma, and the Hanle valley. Nyoma gompa, a Buddhist monastery, is located on the hill slope north of the village.
Chepzi, also spelt Chabji and Dripuche, is a village and military post in Tsamda County of Tibet in China, close to the border with India's Ladakh. Chepzi is close to Chumar in Ladakh's Rupshu region. There is evidence that the people of Chumar have traditionally used the farmlands in Chepzi, and the village was included in Ladakh during the British Raj. However, independent India excluded it from its border definition. The border has been witness to a large number of incursions by the Chinese People's Liberation Army since 2011.
The 2013 Depsang standoff, also called 2013 Depsang incursion, or 2013 Daulat Beg Oldi incident, was an incursion and sit-in by a platoon-sized contingent of the Chinese PLA in the dry river bed of Raki Nala, in the Depsang Bulge area, 30 km south of Daulat Beg Oldi near the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the disputed Aksai Chin region.
The Galwan River flows from the disputed Aksai Chin area administered by China to the Union Territory of Ladakh, India. It originates near the caravan campsite Samzungling on the eastern side of the Karakoram range and flows west to join the Shyok River. The point of confluence is 102 km south of Daulat Beg Oldi. Shyok River itself is a tributary of the Indus River, making Galwan a part of the Indus River system.
Spanggur Tso, also called Maindong Tso, Mendong Tso, is a saltwater lake in Rutog County in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China, close to the border with Ladakh. India claims a major portion of the lake as its own territory, as part of Ladakh. To the west of the lake lies the Spanggur Gap, a low pass through which the Line of Actual Control runs. To the north is the much larger lake Pangong Tso. Spanggur Tso is at an elevation of 4305 meters, and has an area of 61.6 square kilometres. The lake's average annual temperature is around -4 to -2 °C, and the annual precipitation is 50 to 75 mm. The western portion of the lake is claimed by India.
Demchok , previously called New Demchok, and called Parigas by the Chinese, is a village and military encampment in the Indian-administered Demchok sector that is disputed between India and China. It is administered as part of the Nyoma tehsil in the Leh district of Ladakh by India, and claimed by China as part of the Tibet Autonomous Region.
Chang Chenmo River or Changchenmo River is a tributary of the Shyok River, part of the Indus River system. It is at the southern edge of the disputed Aksai Chin region and north of the Pangong Lake basin.
The Demchok sector is a disputed area named after the villages of Demchok in Ladakh and Demchok in Tibet, situated near the confluence of the Charding Nullah and Indus River. It is a part of the greater Sino-Indian border dispute between China and India. Both China and India claim the disputed region, with a Line of Actual Control between the two nations situated along the Charding Nullah.
The Parang River, also called Para River and Pare Chu is an upstream tributary of the Sutlej River, that originates in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh and ends in Himachal Pradesh again, but flows through Ladakh and Tibet before doing so. The origin of the river is near the Parang La pass in the Spiti subdistrict. After its circuitous journey, it joins the Spiti River near Sumdo in Himachal Pradesh and the combined river then joins Sutlej.
Dumchele or Dhumtsele (Chinese: 都木契列; pinyin: Dōu mù qì liè, Tibetan: སྡུམ་མཚེས་ལེ་, Wylie: sdum mtshes le, THL: dum tsé lé) is a village and a grazing area in Skakjung pasture near the Line of Actual Control between Ladakh and Tibet, administered by China since October 1962 but claimed by India. The locale is in the disputed Demchok sector, about 50 kilometers northwest from Demchok and 50 kilometers southeast of Chushul. It lies on a historic trade route between Ladakh and Rutog, with an erstwhile border pass at Chang La or Shingong La to the southeast of Dumchele.
The Depsang Bulge or Burtsa Bulge is a 900-square-kilometre area of mountain terrain in the disputed Aksai Chin region, which was conceded to India by China in 1960, but has remained under Chinese occupation since the 1962 Sino-Indian War. The area is immediately to the south of the Depsang Plains and encloses the basin of the Burtsa Nala, a stream originating in the Aksai Chin region and flowing west to merge with the Depsang Nala near the village of Burtsa in Ladakh, eventually draining into the Shyok River. The area is perceived to be of strategic importance to both the countries, sandwiched by strategic roads linking border outposts. Since 2013, China has made attempts to push the Line of Actual Control further west into Indian territory, threatening India's strategic road.
Jianan Pass is a mountain pass in the eastern Karakoram Range near the Chang Chenmo Valley. The Line of Actual Control (LAC) between India and China runs through the pass dividing the Indian-administered Ladakh and Chinese-administered Aksai Chin. The pass lies on the watershed between Kugrang and Galwan river basins. The Changlung river basin is also immediately to the east of the pass. While China uses the name "Jianan Daban" for the pass, India refers to it as Patrol Point 15 (PP-15) for border security purposes. The term "Hot Springs" has also been used by Indian media through misapplication of terminology.
Tsogtsalu or Tsolu is a pasture and campsite in the Ladakh union territory of India, in the Chang Chenmo Valley close India's border with China. It is located at the confluence of the Rimdi Chu river that flows down from Marsemik La and the Chang Chenmo River. During the British Raj, this was a halting spot for travellers to Central Asia via the 'Chang Chenmo route', passing through Aksai Chin. After Indian independence, a border outpost was established here by a border police party headed by Captain Karam Singh. It continues to serve as a base for India's border forces.
Tsosib Sumkyil or Churup Sumkhel is the westernmost township of the Zanda County in the Ngari Prefecture, Tibet region of China. It borders India's Spiti region in Himachal Pradesh as well as Rupshu region in Ladakh. The region is watered by the Pare Chu river, a tributary of the Spiti River and an upstream tributary of the Sutlej river. China has ongoing border disputes with India for the southwestern border of the region near Kaurik and the northern border near Chumar.
Stobdan and sources in the Indian Army agree that they are a little taken aback by the Chinese opening up a "front" in Chumar that was undisputed till about two years back. The frontier along Tible-Mane, near Jammu and Kashmir's inter-state border with Himachal Pradesh, is recognised as the "International Boundary" and not as the "Line of Actual Control (LAC)".