__NOTOC__ Tulung La () is a border pass between the

Tsona County Tsona County () or Cona County () is a county in Shannan prefecture in southern part of Tibet region of China. The county lies immediately to the north of the McMahon Line agreed as the mutual border between British India and Tibet in 1914. Chin ...

in the

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...

region of China and India's

Tawang district Tawang district (Pron:/tɑ:ˈwæŋ or təˈwæŋ/) is the smallest of the 26 administrative districts of Arunachal Pradesh state in northeastern India. With a population of 49,977, it is the eighth least populous district in the country (out of ...

Arunachal Pradesh Arunachal Pradesh (, ) is a state in Northeastern India. It was formed from the erstwhile North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) region, and became a state on 20 February 1987. It borders the states of Assam and Nagaland to the south. It shares int ...

. It is in the eastern part of the two districts, close to the Gori Chen cluster of mountains, on a watershed between the Tsona Chu river in Tibet and the

Tawang Chu Tawang Chu is the main river of the Tawang district in Arunachal Pradesh, India. The entire district may be regarded as the basin of the Tawang Chu river. In addition, two south-flowing rivers from Tibet, viz., Tsona Chu and Nyamjang Chu, join ...

in the Tawang district. The watershed ridge forms the border between Tibet and India as per the

McMahon Line The McMahon Line is the boundary between Tibet and British India as agreed in the maps and notes exchanged by the respective plenipotentiaries on 24–25 March 1914 at Delhi, as part of the 1914 Simla Convention. The line delimited the resp ...

. Tulung La provided an invasion route to China during the 1962

Sino-Indian War The Sino-Indian War took place between China and India from October to November 1962, as a major flare-up of the Sino-Indian border dispute. There had been a series of violent border skirmishes between the two countries after the 1959 Tib ...

. It is also the scene of occasional clashes between the two sides.

Geography

Nyamjang Chu and Tawang Chu rivers mapped by Morshead and Bailey, 1913

Tulung La is at the northeastern corner of the

. The British political officer F. M. Bailey, who travelled through Tibet in 1912–1913, observed a "main Himalayan range" that runs from the high peaks of

Namcha Barwa Namcha Barwa or Namchabarwa (; Chinese: 南迦巴瓦峰, Pinyin: ''Nánjiābāwǎ Fēng'') is a mountain peak lying in Tibet in the region of Pemako. The traditional definition of the Himalaya extending from the Indus River to the Brahmaputra ...

in an unbroken line till Tulung La. He observed that it continues west towards the border of Bhutan but in a somewhat "broken" way, passing through Milakatong La mentioned earlier by Indian explorer

Nain Singh Nain Singh (21 October 18301 February 1882), also known as Nain Singh Rawat, was one of the first Indian explorers (dubbed "pundits") employed by the British to explore the Himalayas and Central Asia. He came from the Johar Valley in Kumaon. He ...

(now recognised as

Bum La Pass The Bum La Pass is a border pass between China's Tsona County in Tibet and India's Tawang district in Arunachal Pradesh. It is 37 km away from the town of Tawang in India's Tawang district and 43 km from the town of Tsona Dzong in C ...

). To the north of Tulung La rises one of the headwaters of Seti Chu, a tributary of Tsona Chu, which it joins near the town of Lampug (Langpo). Another headwater of Seti Chu comes from Pen La, connecting the valley to that of the Subansiri valley. To the south of Tulung La is one of the headwaters of Goshu Chu (also called Goro Chu), which joins two other rivers near Mago () to form

. One of the three rivers, Gorjo Chu, comes from the southeast, providing an alternative route into the West Kameng district via Tse La. The Tulung La ridge runs west-southwest dividing the waters of Seti Chu in the north and the Tawang Chu tributaries in the south. It runs till a location called Yangtse, where Tsona Chu runs break through the ridge line, and receives the spectacular

Chumi Gyatse Falls Chumi Gyatse Falls (), called Domtsang and Dongzhang waterfalls in Tibetan and Chinese languages respectively, are a collection of waterfalls in the Tawang district in Arunachal Pradesh, India, close to the border with the Tibet region of China. A ...

falling down a near vertical cliff of the ridge. The entire ridgeline between Tulung La and Yangtse has also been called the "Yangtse ridge" in recent times.

History

During the 1914

Simla Convention The Simla Convention, officially the Convention Between Great Britain, China, and Tibet,

conference, the British Indian foreign secretary

Henry McMahon Sir Arthur Henry McMahon (28 November 1862 – 29 December 1949) was a British Indian Army officer and diplomat who served as the High Commissioner in Egypt from 1915 to 1917. He was also an administrator in British India and served twice as ...

and the Tibetan plenipotentiary

Lonchen Shatra Shatra (personal name Paljor Dorje, full title Longchen Shatra Paljor Dorje (blon chen bshad sgra dpal 'byor rdo rje); བཤད་སྒྲ ''bshad sgra''; དཔལ་འབྱོར་རྡོ་རྗེ; ''dpal 'byor rdo rje''; c. 1860 – ...

negotiated the mutual boundary between the two countries, which came to be known as the

. McMahon summarised the decision as follows: The

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...

, which did not sign the Simla Convention, disavowed the McMahon boundary by around 1935, and so has the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

that succeed it. The

border dispute A territorial dispute or boundary dispute is a disagreement over the possession or control of land between two or more political entities. Context and definitions Territorial disputes are often related to the possession of natural resources su ...

continues between China and India to the present day. In 1962, China launched a

war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

on India, invading the Tawang district from the north. Tulung La was one of the passes through which the Chinese forces came in. They went via Poshing La and threatened the road route between

Bomdila Bomdila is the headquarters of West Kameng district in the state of Arunachal Pradesh in India. Bomdila is one of the 60 constituencies of the state of Arunachal Pradesh. Geography and Climate Bomdila is located at . It has an average elevati ...

and the

Se La "Se La" is a track from Lionel Richie's 1986 album ''Dancing on the Ceiling''. The song was written by Richie and Greg Phillinganes, and produced by Richie and James Anthony Carmichael. Released in 1987 as the final single from the album, it wou ...

pass, an action that made the Indian positions at Se La untenable. India lost the war. But China withdrew to the former positions at the end of the war, declaring that it would work on the border settlement through negotiations. As of , no settlement has yet been reached. In October 1975, there was a clash at the Tulung La pass. The Chinese border troops fired on an Indian patrol belonging to

Assam Rifles The Assam Rifles (AR) is a central paramilitary force responsible for border security, counter-insurgency, and maintaining law and order in Northeast India. It guards the Indo-Myanmar border. The Assam rifles is the oldest paramilitary force ...

, killing four out of the six men. According to India, the Chinese ambushed Indian troops 500 metres south of Tulung La and the clash took place on Indian territory. China denied the claim, and blamed the Indian troops who were said to have entered Chinese territory and initiated the clash. The Indian military officer who went to receive the bodies a week later, opined that the soldiers were likely not killed in the shooting, but were subsequently tortured to death. In November 2020, the Chhetri War Memorial was set up at Tulung La to commemorate the slain soldiers, inaugurated by the Arunachal Pradesh chief minister

Pema Khandu Pema Khandu (born 21 August 1979) is an Indian politician and the Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh. He is son of former Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh Dorjee Khandu. Since assuming office of chief minister in July 2016, he and his govern ...

. The 1975 Tulung La incident was reminiscent of other peacetime firing incidents prior to the 1962 war, viz., the 1959 Longju incident and the 1959

Kongka Pass incident The Kongka Pass or Kongka La () is a low mountain pass on the Line of Actual Control between India and China in eastern Ladakh. It lies on a spur of the Karakoram range that intrudes into the Chang Chenmo Valley adjacent to the disputed Aksai ...

, which vitiated the relations between the two countries to such an extent that the war became inevitable. However, after 1975, there were no further firing incidents. In 1993, India and China signed a Border Peace and Tranquility Agreement, prohibiting the use of firearms in the vicinity of the border.

Notes

References

Bibliography

* * * * * {{Authority control China–India border crossings Mountain passes of Arunachal Pradesh Mountain passes of Tibet Mountain passes of China Mountain passes of India Mountain passes of the Himalayas Borders of Arunachal Pradesh

Geography

History

See also

Notes

References

Bibliography