Dumchele

Dumchele[lower-alpha 1] is a village and a grazing area 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.[5][6] It lies on a historic trade route between Ladakh and Rutog, with a border pass at Chang La to the southeast of Dumchele.

Dumchele
Village
Dumchele
Dumchele
Coordinates: 33°04′34″N 79°10′08″E
CountryChina (disputed by India)
RegionTibet
PrefectureNgari
CountyRutog
Elevation
4,100 m (13,500 ft)

Until 1962 India maintained a 'forward' post at Kegu Naro, a days march from Dumchele.[7] In the 1962 war, China attacked Chang La and forced India to withdraw from both the locations. At the present time, China maintains a trading post at Dumchele and a military post nearby.[5]

History
The disputed Demchok sector between China and India: the Chinese claim line on the west, the Indian claim line on the east and the Line of Actual Control in the middle.
The northern part of Demchok sector drawn by US Army Map Service, 1954
Frederec Drew's map of the Demchok sector, 1875

The Dumchele valley-plain lies along a 17th trade route between Ladakh and Tibet.[5]

British Raj
See also: Demchok sector

Moorcroft's associate, George Trebeck, visited the area in early 19th century, travelling south on the right bank of Indus. He stayed at a place called Chibra very near Dumchele.[lower-alpha 2] The area was studded with small ponds and lakes, and a rivulet crossed the Indus bed (Xingong Lungpa), getting divided by an island.[lower-alpha 3] He described the Indus river bed as consisting of loose sand, with a form of sand-grass called Long-ma growing on it. It provided winter grazing for the Ladakhis, apparently the only winter grazing available in the whole of Rupshu.[9] He also noticed a trading party belonging to the Kalon of Ladakh return from Rudok, carrying fifty-six sheep loads of shawl wool (pashm) and further loads of coarse wool.[10][11]

The border of Ladakh was described to Trebeck as running from "the angle of a hill about five miles to the east" (which would be near Chang La) to the low pass of La Ganskiel (the "Lagankhel" of later maps).[12]

Scholar Janet Rizvi confirms that traders often travelled with donkeys via Chang La to Rudok and returned with salt and wool. Ladakhi monks that went to Tibet for education and training also used the route, travelling with traders.[13]

In 1847, Henry Strachey visited the left bank of Indus, as part of a British boundary commission for Kashmir. He discovered that the Tibetans regarded the rivulet flowing into the Indus next to the Demchok village of Ladakh as the border on Indus.[14][lower-alpha 4]

Between 1855 and 1865, a Kashmir Survey was conducted by the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India. At the end of it, the British government defined a new border, which inexplicably excluded both the Demchok village and the Chang La pass from Ladakhi territory.[15] The new border ran along the Indus River between Lagankhel and the confluence with the Xingong Lungpa stream. North of this, it headed to the eastern watershed of the Indus River. This border still left Dumchele in Ladakhi territory. (See the map by the US Army Map Service.)

Kashmir's geologist Frederic Drew created a map in connection with his book, The Jummoo and Kashmir Territories, in 1875. His border, professedly based on the territories actually used by the Ladakhis and Tibetans for grazing, placed the Chang La ("Chang Pass") and the entire watershed of the Xingong Lungpa stream within Ladakh.[16]

Despite the various British efforts at border definition, the situation on the ground was essentially unchanged. The state of Kashmir was ruled by a native Maharaja who enjoyed considerable autonomy. The traditional borders appear to have continued until the time of India's independence in 1947.[17]

Post 1962

In October 1962, the Chinese occupied the territory from India.[18] During and following the Indo-Pakistan war of 1965, the Dumchele area saw some action mainly in the form of the Indian and Chinese governments exchanging notes blaming each other for intruding into their territory.[19][20] In Tsaskur, 2.5 miles (4.0 km) south west of Dumchele, three Indian armed personnel were killed by PLA troops 19 September 1965.[21][22] Also in September 1965, according to the Chinese, India's border provocation at Dumchele was the worst provocation since 1962.[6]

Trading post

There is a Chinese trading post at Dumchele.[5] The PLA military post near Dumchele supports the trade between both sides of the LAC. For a few days during winter the trade intensifies. A 2014 study by Siddiq Wahid for the Research and Information Systems for Developing Countries, a New Delhi based think-tank, reports trade (smuggling) of "tiger bones, tiger skins, rhino horns and sandalwood".[5] Items exchanged also include rice, wheat and cooking oil, and in exchange Pashmina shawls and Chinese crockery and electronics are traded.[23] In 2016, the smuggling occurring here, which was reportedly worth many crores, was stopped by Indian authorities.[24]

Locations

Tsaskur, alternately spelled as Tsoskur, is an Indian administered campsite located 2.5 miles (4.0 km) south west of Dumchele.[25] Areas between Dumchele and Demchok such as Nagtsang, Nakung, and Lungma-Serding, Skakjung are China administered territories.[26] Kegu Naro is a day's march from Dumchele.[7]

Notes
  1. Variations of the spelling include "Dumchule",[1] "Dumchulle",[2] "Doom Cheley",[3] and "Dumche La".[4]
  2. The coordinates of Chibra given in the Gazetteer of Kashmir and Ladakh, 79°10′N 83°5′E, are virtually the same as those of Dumchele.[8]
  3. The rivulet coming down from the Chang La pass is called "Xingong Lungpa" on Chinese maps. It is obtained by the merger of two further streams coming down from mountain heights. On the Indus bed, the rivulet divides, with a large strand flowing into the Dumchele lake.
  4. Demchok extended to the southern side of the rivulet in Strachey's view, which was under the control of Tibet. The Chinese call this village Dêmqog, which is the Tibetan pinyin spelling of Demchok.

References
  1. Claude Arpi, China must come clean on whether it considers Ladakh a 'disputed territory', Daily O, 13 August 2016.
  2. Bhattacharji, Ladakh (2012): "Like in Dumchulle on the right bank of the Indus across from Dungti on the Nyoma–Demchog road, where it is about 16 km in Indian territory."
  3. Ladakh MP claims China occupied Indian territory under Congress rule, hits out at Rahul Gandhi, Scroll.in, 10 June 2020.
  4. Report on the External Land Trade of the Punjab, Punjab (India). Land Records Department, 1906, p. 1: "The Lahaulis going to the south turn off at Dongtchi [Dungti] and go by the Dumche La to Chakang and by Demchok to Tashigong."
  5. Siddiq Wahid (February 2014) The Changthang Borderlands of Ladakh: A Preliminary Inquiry (Discussion Paper # 187). Research and Information Systems for Developing Countries. Retrieved on 31 October 2020.
  6. Chaudhry, Praveen K.; Vanduzer-Snow, Marta (2011). The United States and India: A History Through Archives: The Later Years: Volume 2. SAGE Publications India. p. 202. ISBN 978-81-321-0678-4.
  7. Stobdan, Phunchok (26 April 2013). "The Ladakh drift". Indian Express.
  8. Gazetteer of Kashmir and Ladak, Calcutta: Superintendent of Government Printing, 1890, p. 268
  9. Moorcroft & Trebeck, Travels in the Himalayan Provinces, Vol. 1 (1841), p. 440.
  10. Moorcroft & Trebeck, Travels in the Himalayan Provinces, Vol. 1 (1841), p. 444.
  11. Grist, Nicky (1995), "Moorcroft & Ladakh Studies", in Henry Osmaston; Philip Denwood (eds.), Recent Research on Ladakh 4 & 5: Proceedings of the Fourth and Fifth International Colloquia on Ladakh, Motilal Banarsidass Publ., pp. 332–333, ISBN 978-81-208-1404-2
  12. Moorcroft & Trebeck, Travels in the Himalayan Provinces, Vol. 1 (1841), p. 440: "... the boundary of Ladakh was pointed out to us as extending from the angle of a hill about five miles to the east, to the low pass of La Ganskiel on the road to Gardokh, about fourteen miles distant to the southward."
  13. Joldan, Sonam (Autumn 2006), "Relationship between Ladakh and Buddhist Tibet: Pilgrimage and trade", The Tibet Journal, 31 (3): 44–45, JSTOR 43300982
  14. Lamb, The China-India border (1964), p. 68.
  15. Lamb, The China-India border (1964), pp. 72–73.
  16. Drew, The Jummoo and Kashmir Territories (1875), pp. 316, 496: "About north-north-east from Dora the northern mountain-ridge changes in point of composition from granite to a more or less altered shale; the line of it is more to the east than before, while in the line of its original direction are some more hills which are joined to the other ridge by a neck called on the Survey Map "Chang Pass"; this Pass is practically the boundary of Chinese Tibet in that direction; in the Indus Valley the boundary will be a day or two's march beyond Dora."
  17. Schomberg, R. C. F. (1950), "Expeditionts: The Tso Morari to the Tibetan Frontier at Demchok", The Himalayan Journal, XVI (1): 100–105 Available from http://pahar.in/journals/
  18. Bhattacharji, Ladakh (2012), Chapter 6: "In the Chinese bazaar of Dumchulle, in the territory occupied from India in 1962, [...]"
  19. Daily Report, Foreign Radio Broadcasts, Issues 181-185. United States Central Intelligence Agency. 1965.CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  20. Notes, Memoranda and Letters Exchanged between the Governments of India and China (February 1966–February 1967) White Paper No XIII. Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India. Accessed on 31 October 2020.
  21. "From the archives - dated November 30, 1965". The Hindu. 2015-11-30. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 2020-11-05. India has demanded from China "full compensation" for the damage to Indian life and property by intruding Chinese troops near Tsaskur in Ladakh on September 19 last. The demand was made in a note handed to the Chinese Embassy here [New Delhi] on November 26 and made public to-day [November 29].
  22. "Indian Army celebrates Cho La Day to commemorate 1967 action against PLA". South Asia Monitor. IANS. 2 October 2020. Retrieved 2020-11-05.CS1 maint: others (link)
  23. PTI (2009-09-21). "Smuggling rampant along LAC in Ladakh". Deccan Herald.
  24. Arpi, Claude (23 August 2019). "Is there a way forward for India-China in Ladakh?". Indian Defence Review.
  25. Notes, Memoranda and Letters Exchanged between the Governments of India and China (January 1965–February 1966) White Paper No XII. Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India. Accessed on 5 November 2020.
  26. Gangadharan, Surya (29 May 2020). "As China 'Inches' In, India Cannot Afford To Yield Ground In Ladakh". StratNewsGlobal.

Bibliography
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