Choglamsar, also spelt Chuglamsar, is a

census town In India and some other countries, a census town is designated as a town that satisfies certain characteristics. India In India, a census town is one which is not statutorily notified and administered as a town, but nevertheless whose population ...

in the

Leh district Leh district is a district in the union territory of Ladakh, India. With an area of 45,110 ''km'2'', it is the second largest district in the country smaller only to Kutch. It is bounded on the north by Gilgit-Baltistan's Kharmang and Gha ...

Ladakh Ladakh () is a region administered by India as a union territory which constitutes a part of the larger Kashmir region and has been the subject of dispute between India, Pakistan, and China since 1947. (subscription required) Quote: "Jammu and ...

, India. It is located on the bank of the

Indus River The Indus ( ) is a transboundary river of Asia and a trans-Himalayan river of South and Central Asia. The river rises in mountain springs northeast of Mount Kailash in Western Tibet, flows northwest through the disputed region of Kashmir, ...

Etymology

Two circular passes go to Leh via Choglamsar: one through

Spituk Spituk or Pitok () is a census town located in the Leh district of Ladakh, India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous count ...

, and other through Saboo. * According to one theory, the name Choglamsar is derived from the Ladakhi words ''lcog-yog'' ལྕོག་ཡོག་("winded") maybe ཀྱག་ཀྱོག་ "winding", ''lam'' ལམ་ ("pass"), and ''sar'' སར་ ("place"). * Another theory derives the name from the words ''kyok'' ཀྱོག་ phoneticized as "tchog" ("turn, crooked, bent, winding, curved, zigzag"), ''lam'' ལམ་ ("path"), and ''sar'' སར་ ("place"). So the name means "the place where path turns" (to Leh town). Indeed, at this point, the road (Leh-Manali Highway) leaves the valley of the indus which it followed, to head north towards the city of Leh * A third theory dervices it from the words ''chok'' ("tent") and ''tsal'' ཚལ་ ("garden"). * The town is also called "Choklsel" after tibetan ''chokse'' ཅོག་རྩེ་, a type of Ladakhi table.

Demographics

Choglamsar was designated as a

for the first time during the

2011 Census of India The 2011 Census of India or the 15th Indian Census was conducted in two phases, house listing and population enumeration. The House listing phase began on 1 April 2010 and involved the collection of information about all buildings. Information ...

, which recorded its population as 10,754 and literacy rate as 98.55%. The

sex ratio The sex ratio (or gender ratio) is usually defined as the ratio of males to females in a population. As explained by Fisher's principle, for evolutionary reasons this is typically about 1:1 in species which reproduce sexually. Many species devia ...

of the town is 648 (females per 1000 males); the sex ratio for the population aged 0–6 years is 953.

Infrastructure

Choglamsar is connected to

Leh Leh () ( lbj, ) is the joint capital and largest city of Ladakh, a union territory of India. Leh, located in the Leh district, was also the historical capital of the Kingdom of Ladakh, the seat of which was in the Leh Palace, the former res ...

by road. The town has

golf links A links is the oldest style of golf course, first developed in Scotland. Links courses are generally built on sandy coastland that offers a firmer playing surface than parkland and heathland courses. The word "links" comes via the Scots langu ...

, a

polo Polo is a ball game played on horseback, a traditional field sport and one of the world's oldest known team sports. The game is played by two opposing teams with the objective of scoring using a long-handled wooden mallet to hit a small hard ...

ground, horticultural nurseries, and an arts and crafts centre. It has Tibetan refugee camps constructed by the Indian government and the

Central Tibetan Administration The Central Tibetan Administration (, , ), often referred to as the Tibetan Government-in-Exile, is a non-profit political organization based in Dharamshala, India. Its organization is modeled after an elective parliamentary government, compo ...

. The village was badly affected during the

2010 Ladakh floods The 2010 Ladakh floods occurred on 6 August 2010 across a large part of Ladakh, then part of the state of Jammu and Kashmir. 71 towns and villages were damaged, including the main town in the area, Leh.Hobley, D.E.J., et al., 2012, Reconstructio ...

. According to the 2011 census, the town has 1 primary school, 3 middle schools, 3 secondary schools, and 1 senior secondary school; it does not have any colleges. In 2016, the

Central Institute of Buddhist Studies The Central Institute of Buddhist Studies, formerly known as the School of Buddhist Philosophy, located in Leh town of Ladakh is a deemed university under Ministry of Culture. It was founded in 1959 and formerly affiliated to the Sampurnanand S ...

in Choglamsar was given the status of a deemed university by the Government of India, for a period of five years. The Choglamsar Bridge over the Indus River connects the town to

Chuchat Yakma Chuchat Yakma, also known as Chuchot Yokma, is a village in the Leh district of Ladakh, India. It is located in the Leh tehsil. Demographics According to the 2011 census of India The 2011 Census of India or the 15th Indian Census was co ...

, the site of an

Imambara A ḥosayniya or hussainiya (Arabic: حسينية ''husayniyya''), also known as an ashurkhana, imambargah, or imambara, is a congregation hall for Twelver Shia Muslim commemoration ceremonies, especially those associated with the Mourning of M ...

. In 2019, the Indian Army built a

suspension bridge A suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck (bridge), deck is hung below suspension wire rope, cables on vertical suspenders. The first modern examples of this type of bridge were built in the early 1800s. Simple suspension bridg ...

in 40 days, connecting Choglamsar to Chuchat Yakma and

Stok Stok is a village in the Leh district of Ladakh, India. It is located in the Leh tehsil, in the Indus Valley 17 km southeast of the Leh town. The village is home to the 14th century Stok Monastery, with its high seated Gautama Buddha sta ...

. Named Maitri Bridge, it is the longest

built over the Indus River.

References

{{Leh district Cities and towns in Leh district