Demchok sector

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The Demchok sectorTemplate:Efn 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.Template:Efn

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.

Geography

File:Demchok-sector-map.jpg
The Demchok sector with China's claim line in the west and India's claim line in the east. The Line of Actual Control, shown in bold, starting from Charding La in south runs along the Charding Nullah and then west along the Indus River to Lagankhel near confluence with the Chibra stream and till confluence near Fukche with the Koyul Lungpa river from Chang La, then heads northwest to the mountain watershed.

At the bottom of the valley, the Charding Nullah branches into a 2 km-wide delta as it joins the Indus River.[1] 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.[2][3] 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.Template:Sfnp 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.[4]

The watershed east of the Koyul Lungpa river, near the village of Koyul, is at the western boundary of the disputed sector,[5] with China's claim line running along the crest of the ridge.Template:Citation needed

Modern Chinese sources refer to the disputed area around Demchok as Parigas (Template:Zh)[6][7]Template:Efn or the Parigas region (Template:Zh).[8][9] It is apparently named after the Tibetan name Palicasi (Template:Bo) of an insignificant camping site that is known to Ladakhis as Silungle.[10][11]Template:Efn Chinese sources describe the disputed territory as having a total area of Template:Convert with India controlling Template:Convert of its southwest corner, west of Dêmqog and the Indus River.[6][7][8]

History

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Early history

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.Template:SfnpTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp

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 (Template:Reign) and Sengge Namgyal (Template:Reign), all the regions of Ngari Khorsum are known to have paid tribute to Ladakh.Template:Sfnp Sengge Namgyal is credited with building a Drukpa monastery at Tashigang, Template:Convert southeast of Demchok.Template:Sfnp He also built the present monasteries of Hemis and Hanle, and the sacred site of Demchok was apparently placed under the former's jurisdiction.[12]

Treaty of Tingmosgang (1684)

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File:The empire of King Tsewang Rnam Rgyal 1., and that of King Jamyang Rnam Rgyal., about 1560 and 1600 A.D.jpg
Ladakh's territories prior to the Treaty of Tingmosgang, depicted by August Hermann Francke

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".[13] The original text of the Treaty of Tingmosgang is not available to us.[14] 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]."Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp

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".Template:Sfnp

British boundary commission (1846–1847)

File:Ladakh-Garhwal-1863.jpg
Map of Ladakh, Edward Weller, 1863

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.Template:SfnpTemplate:Efn 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.Template:Sfnp The British boundary commission nevertheless surveyed the area. Its report stated: Template:Quote The "rivulet" is evidently the Charding nullah. The Tibetan frontier guards prohibited the commission from proceeding beyond the rivulet.Template:Sfnp 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.Template:Sfn This appears to be the first time that the watershed principle was used in the Indian subcontinent for defining a boundary.Template:SfnpTemplate:Efn

Kashmir Atlas (1868)

File:Demchok-sector-French-Army-map-1911.png
Kashmir Atlas boundary of the Demchok sector (Geographic Service of the French Army, 1909)

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.Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp[15] Even though this was not an official boundary delimitation, the atlas made several adjustments to the boundary, including in the Demchok sector. Lamb states: Template:Quote 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.Template:Efn 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.[16][17]Template:Efn In contrast, Lamb interprets this as a "compromise" wherein the British gave up territory in Demchok to include other territory near the Spanggur Lake.Template:Sfnp

Later colonial period (1868–1947)

Subsequent to the Kashmir Atlas of 1868, there was a flood of British publications on Ladakh.Template:Efn 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.[18]Template:Rp During the two World Wars, some maps from world powers (including China) showed the same borders.[19]

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.Template:Efn Lamb states, "by the time of the Transfer of Power in 1947 nothing had been settled."Template:Sfnp

Modern claims

Template:OSM Location map Template:POV section Since the 1950s, Indian maps do not agree entirely with either the 1846–1847 survey or the 1868 Kashmir Atlas: the Indian claims lie Template:Convert 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 Template:Convert west of Demchok.[18]Template:Rp The Chinese claims coincide with British maps that placed the border Template:Convert west of Demchok.[18]Template:Rp The Chinese claims also coincided with the borders used by the 1945 National Geographic and 1955 United States Army Map Service maps.[20]Template:Rp

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.Template:Sfnp[21] It has also been referred to as "Lari Karpo" ("white lhari") and "Demchok Lari Karpo" in Tibetan documents.Template:SfnpTemplate:Efn

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.[22][23] The split did not divide any of the resident families.[22]

Sources vary on whether the larger sector is administered by China or India.[24]

See also

Notes

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References

  1. ↑ Claude Arpi, Demchok and the New Silk Road: China's double standard, Indian Defence Review, 4 April 2015. "View of the nalla" image.
  2. ↑ Template:Harvp: 'At present officially located in India, the village of Demchok marked the border between Tibet and Ladakh for a long time. Abdul Wahid Radhu, a former representative of the Lopchak caravan, described Demchok in his travel account as "the first location on the Tibetan side of the border".'
  3. ↑ Template:Harvp: According to a report by the governor of Ladakh in 1904–05, "I visited Demchok on the boundary with Lhasa. ... A nullah falls into the Indus river from the south-west and it (Demchok) is situated at the junction of the river. Across is the boundary of Lhasa, where there are 8 to 9 huts of the Lhasa zamindars. On this side there are only two zamindars."
  4. ↑ India, China admit to intrusion by Chinese herdsmen, Gulf News, 28 July 2014.
  5. ↑ Negotiating with the Chinese, 1846-1987: Problems and Perspectives, with an Epilogue. Reliance Publishing House.: "[The claim line] crosses the Shangatsangpu (Indus River) at 33 degrees north Latitude, runs along the watershed east of the Koyul Lungpa River and South of the Hanle River up to Mount Shinowu..."
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 中国对印战略：装甲集团沿三线突击两日可抵新德里(25 August 2017). Retrieved 19 July 2020.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 印度防长：要让巴付出代价 已炮击2万发炮弹(10 October 2014). Retrieved 8 August 2020.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 典角村，固有領土的見證，如今，600米外駐紮印軍(11 June 2020). Retrieved 19 July 2020.
  9. ↑ 房建昌：近代中印西段边界史略, Fang, Jianchang. Sohu(17 June 2020). Retrieved 8 August 2020.
  10. ↑ Tibetmap 3279, July 2009, retrieved 18 May 2022.
  11. ↑ Ngari Prefecture, KNAB Place Name Database, retrieved 18 May 2022.
  12. ↑ Demchok (Notes and topics).
  13. ↑ * Template:Harvtxt
  14. ↑ Template:Harvnb:
    • "No text of this agreement between Tibet and Ladakh survives, but there are references to it in chronicles"
    • "There can be no doubt that the 1684 (or 1683) agreement between Ladakh and the authorities then controlling Tibet did in fact take place. Unfortunately, no original text of it has survived and its terms can only be deduced. In its surviving form there seems to be a reference to a boundary point at 'the Lhari stream at Demchok', a stream which would appear to flow into the Indus at Demchok and divide that village into two halves."
    • "The treaty that could have given this information, that of 1684, has not survived in the form of its full text, and we have no means of determining exactly what line of frontier was contemplated in 1684. The chronicles which refer to this treaty are singularly deficient in precise geographical details."
  15. ↑ India–China Border Dispute: Boundary-Making and Shaping of Material Realities from the Mid-Nineteenth to Mid-Twentieth Century. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society({Template:Year).
  16. ↑ Template:Harvp:
    • p.24: "But such an evaluation was seldom done and although most officials traced the boundary correctly along the watershed range running parallel to the river Indus, gross blunders were committed regarding the alignment in the Pangong and Demchok areas. This was apparently due to the unfamiliarity of some of the British officials with the traditional and treaty basis of the boundary and to their mistaking local disputes such as pasture disputes with boundary disputes."
    • p.29: "The Kashmir Atlas boundary conflicts also with the first-hand evidence provided by the 1847 Commission. In regard to Demchok, it conflicts with well-established facts of history and with revenue records for the very period that the survey was conducted."
  17. ↑ Template:Harvp: "Many of these relationships had their origin in the distant past, and the British at first understood their full significance imperfectly, or not at all."
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 Treaties, Maps and the Western Sector of the Sino-Indian Boundary Dispute. The Australian Year Book of International Law({Template:Year).
  19. ↑ See Atlas of the Northern Frontier of India, Ministry of External Affairs, New Delhi, Maps 3 and, 6.
  20. ↑ Indian Foreign Policy and the Border Dispute with China{{#if:van Eekelen|, van Eekelen}. Springer-Verlag(1964). ISBN 978-94-015-0715-8
  21. ↑ Claude Arpi, The Case of Demchok, Indian Defence Review, 19 May 2017.
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 Ladakhis await re-opening of historic Tibet route. The Hindu(2 August 2005). Retrieved 19 July 2020.
  23. ↑ The Case of Demchok, Arpi, Claude. Indian Defence Review(19 May 2017). Retrieved 19 July 2020.
  24. ↑ A selection of sources that state that the Demchok sector is administered by China:Template:Bulleted listTemplate:BrA selection of sources that state that the Demchok sector is administered by India:Template:Bulleted list

Bibliography

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