Parigas district | |||||||
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Simplified Chinese | 巴 里 加 斯 地区 | ||||||
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The Demchok sector [a] 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. [b]
The Charding Nullah was mentioned by the name "Lhari stream" in a treaty between the Kingdom of Ladakh and the Ganden Phodrang government of Tibet in 1684 and stated as the boundary between the two regions. British surveys placed the border in 1847 between the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir and Qing Tibet on the stream,while British maps from 1868 onwards placed the border downstream and west of Demchok. After independence in 1947,India claimed the southern watershed of the river (roughly 3 miles southeast of Demchok) as its boundary,which has been contested by the People's Republic of China whose claims coincide with the British maps. The two countries fought a brief war in 1962,after which the Demchok region has remained divided between the two nations across a Line of Actual Control.
At the bottom of the valley,the Charding Nullah branches into a 2 km-wide delta as it joins the Indus River. [3] During the British colonial period,there was a village on both the sides of the delta,going by the name Demchok. The southern village appears to have been the main one,frequently referred to by travellers. [4] [5] The Chinese spell the name of the village as Dêmqog. Travel writer Romesh Bhattacharji stated in 2012 that they expected to set up a trading village,but India never renewed trade after the war. He stated that the southern Dêmqog village has only commercial buildings whereas the northern village has security-related buildings. [6] Both the Indians and the Chinese have track roads going up the valley on the two sides of the Charding Nullah,reaching up to the Charding–Nilung Nullah Junction (CNNJ). Occasional stand-offs between the two forces at CNNJ are reported in the newspapers. [7]
The watershed east of the Koyul Lungpa river,near the village of Koyul,is at the western boundary of the disputed sector, [8] with China's claim line running along the crest of the ridge.[ citation needed ]
Modern Chinese sources refer to the disputed area around Demchok as Parigas (Chinese :巴里加斯; pinyin :Bālǐjiāsī) [9] [10] [c] or the Parigas region (Chinese :巴里加斯地区; pinyin :Bālǐjiāsīdìqū). [11] [12] It is apparently named after the Tibetan name Palicasi (Tibetan :པ་ལི་ཅ་སི, Wylie : pa li ca si) of an insignificant camping site that is known to Ladakhis as Silungle. [13] [14] [d] Chinese sources describe the disputed territory as having a total area of 1,900 square kilometres (730 sq mi) with India controlling 450 square kilometres (170 sq mi) of its southwest corner, west of Dêmqog and the Indus River. [9] [10] [11]
The Demchok region was mentioned as being part of the modern kingdom of Ladakh, when it was founded in the 10th century under the name Maryul. King Nyimagon, who founded the West Tibetan kingdom of Ngari Khorsum, divided his kingdom among his three sons upon his death. The eldest son Palgyigon, who is believed to have been the organiser of the Ladakh part of the kingdom, received Ladakh, and the other two sons received Guge–Purang and Zanskar. The description of Maryul in the Ladakh Chronicles mentions Demchok Karpo, the pyramidal white peak behind the Ladakhi Demchok village as one of the landmarks, possibly on its frontier. Other neighbouring landmarks like the Imis Pass ("Yimig rock") and an unidentified place called Raba Dmarpo were also mentioned. [15] [16] [17]
In addition to modern Ladakh, Rudok was also part of Maryul at the time of its formation. Whether it remained affiliated to Ladakh in later times is unknown, but during the reigns of Tsewang Namgyal (r. 1575–1595) and Sengge Namgyal (r. 1616–1642), all the regions of Ngari Khorsum are known to have paid tribute to Ladakh. [18] Sengge Namgyal is credited with building a Drukpa monastery at Tashigang, 30 kilometres (19 mi) southeast of Demchok. [19] He also built the present monasteries of Hemis and Hanle, and the sacred site of Demchok was apparently placed under the former's jurisdiction. [20]
The Ladakh Chronicles (La-dvags-rgyal-rabs) mention that, at the conclusion of the Tibet–Ladakh–Mughal War in 1684, Tibet and Ladakh agreed on the Treaty of Tingmosgang, by which the extensive territories in West Tibet (Ngari) previously controlled by Ladakh were removed from its control and the frontier was fixed at the "Lha-ri stream at Demchok". [21] The original text of the Treaty of Tingmosgang is not available to us. [22] The traditional border between the two regions prior to these conflicts is not clearly known.
According to Alexander Cunningham, "A large stone was then set up as a permanent boundary between the two countries, the line of demarcation drawn from the village of Dechhog [Demchok] to the hill of Karbonas [unidentified]." [23] [24]
Roughly 160 years after the Treaty of Tingmosgang, Ladakh came under the rule of the Dogras, who launched an invasion into the West Tibet leading to the Dogra–Tibetan War. The war ended in a stalemate. The resulting Treaty of Chushul in 1842 bound the parties to the "old, established frontiers". [25]
After the Dogras joined the British suzerainty as the state of Jammu and Kashmir, the British government dispatched a boundary commission consisting of P. A. Vans Agnew and Alexander Cunningham to define the borders of the state with Tibet in 1846–1847. [26] [e] The Chinese government was invited to join the effort for a mutually agreed border. However the Chinese declined, stating that the frontier was well-known and it did not need a new definition. [28] The British boundary commission nevertheless surveyed the area. Its report stated:
[Demchok] is a hamlet of half a dozen huts and tents, not permanently inhabited, divided by a rivulet (entering the left bank of the Indus) which constitutes the boundary of this quarter between Gnari ... [in Tibet] ... and Ladakh. [29]
The "rivulet" is evidently the Charding nullah. The Tibetan frontier guards prohibited the commission from proceeding beyond the rivulet. [29] The commission placed the border on the Indus at Demchok, and followed the mountain watershed of the Indus river on its east, passing through the Jara La and Chang La passes. [30] This appears to be the first time that the watershed principle was used in the Indian subcontinent for defining a boundary. [31] [f]
Between 1847 and November 1864, the British Indian government conducted the Kashmir Survey (Survey of Kashmir, Ladak, and Baltistan or Little Tibet), whose results were published in a reduced form in the Kashmir Atlas of 1868 by the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India. [32] [33] [34] Even though this was not an official boundary delimitation, the atlas made several adjustments to the boundary, including in the Demchok sector. Lamb states:
Where [Cunningham] had put the boundary actually at Demchok, the Kashmir Atlas (Sheet 17) put it about sixteen miles downstream on the Indus from Demchok, thus coming nearer to the [present] Chinese than the Indian claim line. [35]
It is unclear who decided the altered boundary and on what grounds, given that the survey team leader T. G. Montgomerie was of the view that Demchok was in Ladakh. [g] Indian commentators blame it on the rudimentary knowledge of the British surveyors about Ladakh — they were ignorant of past treaties as well as revenue records, and mistook pasture disputes as boundary disputes. [38] [39] [h] In contrast, Lamb interprets this as a "compromise" wherein the British gave up territory in Demchok to include other territory near the Spanggur Lake. [40]
Subsequent to the Kashmir Atlas of 1868, there was a flood of British publications on Ladakh. [i] Despite this, no revisions were made to the border at Demchok. According to Lamb, the majority of British maps published between 1918 and 1947 reproduced the Kashmir Atlas, slotting Demchok within Tibet. [43] : 39 During the two World Wars, some maps from world powers (including China) showed the same borders. [44]
Independent of the colonial cartography, the traditional boundaries continued to be followed on the ground. The Kashmir government disregarded the British maps and the Tibetan claims to Demchok seem to have persisted. [j] Lamb states, "by the time of the Transfer of Power in 1947 nothing had been settled." [46]
Since the 1950s, Indian maps do not agree entirely with either the 1846–1847 survey or the 1868 Kashmir Atlas: the Indian claims lie 3 miles (4.8 km) east of Demchok, whereas the 1846–1847 British boundary commission placed the border through the middle of Demchok, and British maps from the 1860s onwards showed the border to be 10 miles (16 km) west of Demchok. [43] : 48 The Chinese claims coincide with British maps that placed the border 10 miles (16 km) west of Demchok. [43] : 39, 48 The Chinese claims also coincided with the borders used by the 1945 National Geographic and 1955 United States Army Map Service maps. [47] : 152
Prior to the Sino-Indian War of 1962, India had established a border post to the south of the delta (the "New Demchok post"). As the war progressed, the post was evacuated and the Chinese forces occupied it. [48] [49] It has also been referred to as "Lari Karpo" ("white lhari") and "Demchok Lari Karpo" in Tibetan documents. [50] [k]
After the 1962 Sino-Indian War, the village of Demchok was divided in two parts, with Demchok, Ladakh administered by India and Dêmqog, Tibet Autonomous Region administered by China. [52] [53] The split did not divide any of the resident families. [52]
Sources vary on whether the larger sector is administered by China or India. [54]
Ladakh is a region administered by India as a union territory and constitutes an eastern portion of the larger Kashmir region that has been the subject of a dispute between India and Pakistan since 1947 and India and China since 1959. Ladakh is bordered by the Tibet Autonomous Region to the east, the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh to the south, both the Indian-administered union territory of Jammu and Kashmir and the Pakistan-administered Gilgit-Baltistan to the west, and the southwest corner of Xinjiang across the Karakoram Pass in the far north. It extends from the Siachen Glacier in the Karakoram range to the north to the main Great Himalayas to the south. The eastern end, consisting of the uninhabited Aksai Chin plains, is claimed by the Indian Government as part of Ladakh, but has been under Chinese control.
Kargil or Kargyil is a city in Indian-administered Ladakh in the disputed Kashmir region. It is also the headquarters of the Kargil district. It is the second-largest town in Ladakh after Leh. Kargil is located 204 kilometres (127 mi) east of Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir, and 234 kilometres (145 mi) to the west of Leh. It is on the bank of the Suru River near its confluence with the Wakha Rong river, the latter providing the most accessible route to Leh.
Rudok, also spelt Rutok and Rutog, more properly Rudok Dzong, is a town that served as the historical capital of the Rudok area in Western Tibet on the frontier with Ladakh. In the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, it is described as being "picturesquely situated" on the side of a hill standing isolated in the plain near the east end of Lake Pangong.
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.
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 1100 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
Demchok (Tibetan: བདེ་མཆོག, Wylie: bde mchog, THL: dem chok, ZYPY: dêmqog), is a Chinese-administered village in the Zhaxigang Township, Ngari Prefecture in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. India disputes the status and claims it as part of the Demchok sector that it regards as part of Ladakh.
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.
Maryul, also called mar-yul of mnga'-ris, was the western-most Tibetan kingdom based in modern-day Ladakh and some parts of Tibet. The kingdom had its capital at Shey.
The Khurnak Fort is a ruined fort on the northern shore of Pangong Lake, which spans eastern Ladakh in India and Rutog County in the Tibet region of China. The area of the Khurnak Fort is disputed by India and China, and has been under Chinese administration since 1958.
The Tibet–Ladakh–Mughal war of 1679–1684 was fought between the Central Tibetan Ganden Phodrang government, with the assistance of Mongol Khoshut Khanate and the Namgyal dynasty of Ladakh with assistance from the Mughal Empire in Kashmir.
Chumar or Chumur 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, close to Ladakh's border with Tibet. Since 2012, China has disputed the border in this area, though the Chumur village itself is undisputed.
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.
Tangtse or Drangtse (Tibetan: བྲང་རྩེ, Wylie: brang rtse, THL: drang tsé) is a village in the Leh district of Ladakh, India. It is located in the Durbuk tehsil. Traditionally, it was regarded as the border between the Nubra region to the north and the Pangong region to the south. It was a key halting place on the trade route between Turkestan and Tibet. It was also a site of wars between Ladakh and Tibet.
Durbuk or Darbuk, is a village and the headquarters of the eponymous subdivision and block in the Leh district of Ladakh, India. It is located in the Durbuk tehsil, and falls between Chang La mountain pass and Tangste village on the way to Pangong Tso Lake.
The Charding Nullah, traditionally known as the Lhari stream and called Demchok River by China, is a small river that originates near the Charding La pass that is also on the border between the two countries and flows northeast to join the Indus River near a peak called "Demchok Karpo" or "Lhari Karpo". There are villages on both sides of the mouth of the river called by the same name "Demchok", which is presumed to have been a single village originally, and has gotten split into two due to geopolitcal reasons. The river serves as the de facto border between China and India in the southern part of the Demchok sector.
Demchok may refer to:
Demchok, was described by a British boundary commission in 1847 as a village lying on the border between the Kingdom of Ladakh and the Tibet. It was a "hamlet of half a dozen huts and tents", divided into two parts by a rivulet which formed the boundary between the two states. The rivulet, a tributary of the Indus River variously called the Demchok River, Charding Nullah, or the Lhari stream, was set as the boundary between Ladakh and Tibet in the 1684 Treaty of Tingmosgang. By 1904–05, the Tibetan side of the hamlet was said to have had 8 to 9 huts of zamindars (landholders), while the Ladakhi side had two. The area of the former Demchok now straddles the Line of Actual Control, the effective border of the People's Republic of China's Tibet Autonomous Region and the Republic of India's Ladakh Union Territory.
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 the Skakjung pastureland near the Line of Actual Control between Ladakh and Tibet. Dumchele and the area around it have been under Chinese administration since 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.
Tashigang (Tibetan: བཀྲ་ཤིས་སྒང་, Wylie: bkra shis sgang, THL: tra shi gang, transl. "auspicious hillock"), with a Chinese spelling Zhaxigang , is a village in the Gar County of the Ngari Prefecture, Tibet. The village forms the central district of the Zhaxigang Township. It houses an ancient monastery dating to the 11th century.
The Treaty of Tingmosgang, also known as the Treaty of Temisgam, was a tripartite peace agreement signed in 1684 between the Kingdom of Ladakh and the Ganden Phodrang of Tibet, with the support of the Qing dynasty, at the end of the Tibet–Ladakh–Mughal war. The original text of the Treaty of Tingmosgang no longer survives, but its contents are summarized in the Ladakh Chronicles. The treaty contained clauses that established diplomatic relations, delineated borders, and regulated trade between Ladakh and Tibet.
西线巴里加斯印度控制450平方公里(我军曾对部分地区前出巡逻设防),主要位于狮泉河、典角村以西和班公湖西段。[West of the Line, India controls 450 square kilometers of Parigas (our army used to patrol and defend some areas), mainly located in Shiquan River, west of Dêmqog Village and west of Pangong Lake.]
巴里加斯(Parigas),是中国和印度西部边境中的一块争议领土,面积约1900平方公里,包括基古纳鲁河、乌木隆、碟木绰克(Demchok), 果洛等地区。[...] 巴里加斯中国固有领土,位于西藏阿里噶尔县西北 [Bālǐ jiā sī (Parigas) is a disputed territory on the western border between China and India. It covers an area of approximately 1,900 square kilometers, including areas such as the Kigunaru River, Umlung, diǎn jiǎo (Demchok), Guoluo, and other areas. [...] Parigas, China's inherent territory, is located in the northwest of Gar County in Tibet.]
1955年,進一步蠶食巴里加斯地區,如今,印度控制巴里加斯西南角即獅泉河(森格藏布)與卓普河(典角曲)以西大約450平方公里 [In 1955, the Indian army further encroached on the Parigas district. Today, India controls about 450 square kilometers west of the Shiquan River (Sengge Zangbo) and the Zhuopu River (Dêmqog Village) in the southwest corner of Parigas]
其中除了一块很小的巴里加斯(Parigas)地区在本世纪50年代中期被印度侵占以外,其余地区始终在我控制之下,由西藏的日土县(1960年前为宗)管辖。[Except for the small 巴里加斯 (Parigas) area which was invaded by India in the mid-1950s, the rest of the area was always under China's control and under the jurisdiction of Tibet's (pre-1960) Rutog County.]
One of the earliest official delimitations of the northern frontiers of India appears in photozincographed sections of part of the survey of Kashmir, Ladak and Baltistan or Little Tibet showing the "Boundary of His Highness the Maharajah of Kashmir" (8 miles to 1 inch, Dehradoon, October 1868).
Administrative record books show that it has a population of 150 people living in 24 houses, all having solar-powered lights. The village itself was divided into two parts one held by India and the other by China after the 1962 Sino-Indian war, though there is not a single divided family. On the Chinese side one can spot two houses and the road seems to be in a poor condition.
The talks were held in Beijing between Zhang Hanfu, China's Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs, N. Raghavan, the Indian Ambassador to China and T.N. Kaul, his Chargé d'Affaires and Chen Chai-Kang, a Director. They lasted from December 1953 till end of April 1954. [...] Kaul objected, Demchok was in India, he told Chen who answered that India's border was further on the West of the Indus. On Kaul's insistence Chen said "There can be no doubt about actual physical possession which can be verified on spot but to avoid any dispute we may omit mention of Demchok". [...] In October 1962, the Demchok sub-sector was held by the 7 J&K Militia. The PLA launched an attack on October 22. [...] The PLA eventually withdrew, but occupied the southern part of Demchok.