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Kampa or Kamba Dzong, [1] [2] [3] [lower-alpha 1] (Gampa Dzong in Standard Tibetan, [6] [lower-alpha 2] and Gangba Xian in Chinese) [lower-alpha 3] is a Tibetan town north of Sikkim. [8] It is the headequarters Kamba County in the Shigatse Prefecture. It is marked by an iconic hill-top fort, much admired by the expeditions travelling to Mount Everest during the early 20th century. It also used to be a border trading post for Sikkimese traders from North Sikkim, prior to the Chinese annexation of Tibet.
Traditional Tibetan carpet making is thought[ by whom? ] to have originated in Kampa Dzong. [9] [10]
In June 1903, Colonel Francis Younghusband, serving as British commissioner to Tibet, led a diplomatic mission consisting of five officers and five hundred troops to Kampa Dzong. [11] The objective of the mission was to meet Chinese and Tibetan representatives and discuss mutual non-aggression and trade agreements. After being kept waiting for five months before the Chinese and Tibetan representatives arrived, the mission was recalled. [12]
The Sino-Indian border along the Sikkim is well-defined by the 1890 Convention of Calcutta signed by Britain and China. Despite this, frenetic construction of border infrastructure and troop deployment has been witnessed along the border. [13] During the 2020–2021 China–India skirmishes, one of the first clashes was reported at the Naku La pass, where a scuffle broke out between the Chinese and Indian forces, resulting in injuries to eleven soldiers. [14] [15] During the 12th round of disengagement talks, the commanders of the two sides agreed to establish a hotline between the PLA base at Kampa Dzong and the Indian Army base at Kongra La . It was meant to enhance ties between the two armies and maintain peace and tranquility along the border. [16]
Lieutenant Colonel Sir Francis Edward Younghusband, was a British Army officer, explorer and spiritual writer. He is remembered for his travels in the Far East and Central Asia; especially the 1904 British expedition to Tibet, led by himself, and for his writings on Asia and foreign policy. Younghusband held positions including British commissioner to Tibet and president of the Royal Geographical Society.
Jelep La elevation 14,390 feet (4,390 m), is a high mountain pass between Sikkim, India and Tibet Autonomous Region, China. It is on a route that connects Lhasa to India. The pass is about 4 km (2.5 mi) south of Nathu La and is slightly higher. It was frequently used for trade between Tibet and India during the British Raj, with Kalimpong serving as the contact point. The Menmecho Lake lies below the Jelep La.
Nathu La (Tibetan: རྣ་ཐོས་ལ་, Wylie: Rna thos la, THL: Na tö la, Chinese: 乃堆拉山口) is a mountain pass in the Dongkya Range of the Himalayas between China's Yadong County in Tibet, and the Indian states of Sikkim and West Bengal in Bengal, South Asia. The pass, at 4,310 m (14,140 ft), connects the towns of Kalimpong and Gangtok to the villages and towns of the lower Chumbi Valley.
The history of Sikkim begins with the indigenous Lepcha's contact with early Tibetan settlers. Historically, Sikkim was a sovereign Monarchical State in the eastern Himalayas. Later a protectorate of India followed by a merger with India and official recognition as a state of India. Lepchas were the main inhabitants as well as the Ruler of the land up to 1641. Lepchas are generally considered to be the first people, indigenous to Sikkim also includes Darjeeling.
Gyantse, officially Gyangzê Town, is a town located in Gyantse County, Shigatse Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region, China. It was historically considered the third largest and most prominent town in the Tibet region, but there are now at least ten larger Tibetan cities.
Yadong County, also known by its Tibetan name Dromo/TromoCounty is a frontier county and trade-market of the Tibet Autonomous Region of China, part of its Shigatse Prefecture.
The Chumbi Valley, called Dromo or Tromo in Tibetan, is a valley in the Himalayas that projects southwards from the Tibetan plateau, intervening between Sikkim and Bhutan. It is coextensive with the administrative unit Yadong County in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. The Chumbi Valley is connected to Sikkim to the southwest via the mountain passes of Nathu La and Jelep La.
The British expedition to Tibet, also known as the Younghusband expedition, began in December 1903 and lasted until September 1904. The expedition was effectively a temporary invasion by British Indian Armed Forces under the auspices of the Tibet Frontier Commission, whose purported mission was to establish diplomatic relations and resolve the dispute over the border between Tibet and Sikkim. In the nineteenth century, the British had conquered Burma and Sikkim, with the whole southern flank of Tibet coming under the control of the British Indian Empire. Tibet ruled by the Dalai Lama under the Ganden Phodrang government was a Himalayan state under the suzerainty of the Chinese Qing dynasty until the 1911 Revolution, after which a period of de facto Tibetan independence (1912–1951) followed.
Kamba County is a county of Xigazê in the Tibet Autonomous Region, China, bordering India's Sikkim state to the south. The capital lies at Kampa Dzong town which has a noted military facility.
Yatung or Yadong, also known as Shasima , is the principal town in the Chumbi Valley or Yadong County in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. It is also its administrative headquarters.
This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Tibet.
Gyantse Dzong or Gyantse Fortress is one of the best preserved dzongs in Tibet, perched high above the town of Gyantse on a huge spur of grey brown rock.
Hannah Royle Taylor, known as Annie Royle Taylor, was an English explorer and Evangelical missionary to Tibet. She was the first Western woman known to have visited Tibet. She attempted to reach the "forbidden" city of Lhasa in 1892–1893.
The Sikkim expedition was an 1888 British military expedition to expel Tibetan forces from Sikkim in present-day northeast India. The roots of the conflict lay in British-Tibetan competition for suzerainty over Sikkim.
The Convention of Lhasa, officially the Convention Between Great Britain and Thibet, was a treaty signed in 1904 between Tibet and Great Britain, in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. It was signed following the British expedition to Tibet of 1903–1904, a military expedition led by Colonel Francis Younghusband, and was followed by the Anglo-Chinese Convention of 1906.
Colman Patrick Louis Macaulay CIE was an administrator in British India and partly responsible for negotiating the opening of British trade with Tibet.
John Claude White was an engineer, photographer, author and civil servant in British India. From 1889 to 1908, White served as the Political Officer in Sikkim, then a British protectorate. As part of his remit, he also managed British India's relations with Tibet and Bhutan.
The Convention of Calcutta or Anglo-Chinese Convention of 1890, officially the Convention Between Great Britain and China Relating to Sikkim and Tibet, was a treaty between Britain and Qing China relating to Tibet and the Kingdom of Sikkim. It was signed by Viceroy of India Lord Lansdowne and the Chinese Amban in Tibet, Sheng Tai, on 17 March 1890 in Calcutta, India. The Convention recognized a British protectorate over Sikkim and demarcated the Sikkim–Tibet border.
Tibet–India relations are said to have begun during the spread of Buddhism to Tibet from India during the 6th century AD. In 1959, the Dalai Lama fled to India after the failed 1959 Tibetan uprising. Since then, Tibetans-in-exile have been given asylum in India, with the Indian government accommodating them into 45 residential settlements across 10 states in the country. From around 150,000 Tibetan refugees in 2011, the number fell to 85,000 in 2018, according to government data. Many Tibetans are now leaving India to go back to Tibet and other countries such as United States or Germany. The Government of India, soon after India's independence in 1947, treated Tibet as a de facto independent country. However, more recently India's policy on Tibet has been mindful of Chinese sensibilities, and has recognized Tibet as a part of China.
The Five Fingers of Tibet is a Chinese foreign policy attributed to Mao Zedong that considers Tibet to be China's right hand palm, with five fingers on its periphery: Ladakh, Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan, and North-East Frontier Agency, that it is China's responsibility to "liberate" these regions.