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Demchok, Ladakh

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by MarkH21 (talk | contribs) at 11:56, 19 July 2020 (- 2 categories; + 3 categories using HotCat as a divided village with a place in the history of Ladakh & Tibet). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

For the modern Indian-administered village, see [[:Demchok, Ladakh]]. For the modern Chinese-administered village, see [[:Dêmqog, Ngari Prefecture]]. For the disputed area, see [[:Demchok sector]].

Demchok (Tibetan: ཌེམ་ཆོག, Wylie: Demchog, ZYPY: Dêmqog, historical: bDe-mChog)[1]: 115–116  was a historical village in the disputed Demchok sector between China and India. First mentioned as a border point between Ganden Phodrang government of Tibet and the Kingdom of Ladakh in the 1684 Treaty of Tingmosgang,[2][1] the village was historically described as a small village consisting of a few tents split across both banks of the Charding Nullah.[3][4] After the 1962 Sino-Indian War between China and India, the village of Demchok was split by the Line of Actual Control (LAC) into two parts: the Chinese-administered Dêmqog, Ngari Prefecture on the southeastern bank of the river and the Indian-administered Demchok, Ladakh on the northwestern bank of the river.[5][6]

Toponymy

The Tibetan name of "Demchok" (Tibetan: ཌེམ་ཆོག, Wylie: Demchog, ZYPY: Dêmqog) literally translates to "seize resilience" (Tibetan: ཌེམ་, Wylie: dem, ZYPY: dêm, "resilience"; Tibetan: ཆོག, Wylie: chog, ZYPY: qog; "seize").[7]

Description

Map
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8km
5miles
Chisumle
Chisumle
Nullah
Umling La
Umling La
Jara La
Jara La
(Zhaxigang)
Charding La
Charding La
Koyul Lungpa river
Koyul
Nilu Nullah
Nilu
Charding Nullah
Charding
Indus River
Indus River
Demchok
Demchok–India
Dêmqog
Dêmqog–China
Modern-day Demchok, Ladakh and Dêmqog, Ngari Prefecture

The village lay 36.5 km east of Ukdungle (32°36′05″N 78°57′54″E / 32.6015°N 78.9651°E / 32.6015; 78.9651). Demchok was on an old route linking Ladakh and Tibet along the bank of the Indus River,[5] which ran mostly through plains to Lake Manasarovar approximately 300 km away.[8]

Treaty of Tingmosgang

Further information: Chronicles of Ladakh § Treaty of Tingmosgang

The Chronicles of Ladakh mention that, at the conclusion of the Tibet–Ladakh–Mughal War in 1684, the Ganden Phodrang government of Tibet and the Namgyal dynasty of Ladakh agreed on the Treaty of Tingmosgang. The chronicles describe the treaty as fixing the boundary at "the Lhari stream at Demchok", which was described as flowing into the Indus at Demchok and dividing Demchok into two halves.[3]

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."[9][10]

19th century

Further information: Demchok sector § History

A British boundary commission in 1846–1847 on the borders of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir described the village as:

[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.[4]

The commission placed the border between the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir and Qing Tibet on the Indus at Demchok.[11]

The Survey of Kashmir, Ladak, and Baltistan or Little Tibet of 1847 to 1868 under the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India then made several adjustments to the boundary, described by Alastair Lamb as moving "sixteen miles downstream on the Indus from Demchok".[12] However, Indian commentators state that the revenue records from the period of the survey show that the Demchok area was administered by Ladakh.[13][14]

Post-1962 split

The village was divided in two parts following the 1962 Sino-Indian War. The part on the northwestern bank of the Charding Nullah is Demchok, Ladakh administered by India and the part of the southeastern bank of the river is Dêmqog, Ngari Prefecture administered by China.[5] The split did not divide any of the resident families.[5] In 2005, the combined population of the two parts was 150 people living in 24 houses in 2005.[5]

Chinese-administered village

Main article: Dêmqog, Ngari Prefecture

The Chinese-administered village of Dêmqog lies on the southeast bank of the Charding Nullah and LAC. Before 1984, only 3 households were living in Dêmqog.[7] Since 1984, the local governments have encouraged people to move to Dêmqog from surrounding areas.[7] Dêmqog was officially established as an administrative village in 1990 and had a population of 171 people from 51 households in 2019.[7]

Indian-administered village

Main article: Demchok, Ladakh

The Indian-administered village of Demchok lies on the northwest bank of the Charding Nullah and LAC. According to the 2011 Census of India, the village had a population of 78 people from 31 households.[15] In 2019, the village had a population of 69 people.[16]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Francke, August Hermann (1926). Thomas, F. W. (ed.). Antiquities of Indian Tibet, Part (Volume) II.
  2. ^ Ahmad, Zahiruddin (1968). "New light on the Tibet-Ladakh-Mughal war of 1679—1684". East and West. 18 (3/4): 340–361. JSTOR 29755343.
  3. ^ a b Lamb, Treaties, Maps and the Western Sector (1965), p. 38.
  4. ^ a b Lamb, The China-India border (1964), p. 68.
  5. ^ a b c d e Puri, Luv (2 August 2005). "Ladakhis await re-opening of historic Tibet route". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 24 December 2013. Retrieved 19 July 2020. 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.
  6. ^ "Ladakhis deplore Krishna's remark on Demchok road". Archived from the original on 24 December 2013. Retrieved 31 May 2008.
  7. ^ a b c d "典角村"五代房":见证阿里"边境第一村"变迁" ["Five-generation house" in Dianjiao Village: Witness the changes of Ngari's "No. 1 Border Village"] (in Chinese). China Tibet Network [zh]. 11 July 2019. Retrieved 19 July 2020.
  8. ^ "expressindia.com - 'Issue of opening Demchok road with China taken up'". 2 April 2005. Archived from the original on 19 September 2012. Retrieved 27 July 2015.
  9. ^ Woodman, Himalayan Frontiers (1969), pp. 42–43.
  10. ^ Cunningham, Ladak (1854), p. 328.
  11. ^ Maxwell, India's China War 970, map opposite p. 40.
  12. ^ Lamb, The China-India border (1964), pp. 72–73.
  13. ^ Rao, The India-China Border (1968):
    • 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."
  14. ^ Bray, The Lapchak Mission (1990), p. 75: "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."
  15. ^ "Leh district census". 2011 Census of India. Directorate of Census Operations. Archived from the original on 24 July 2015. Retrieved 23 July 2015.
  16. ^ Sharma, Arteev (17 July 2019). "Lack of infra forcing people to migrate from frontier". Retrieved 29 May 2020.

Bibliography

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