Chema or Phema (; ), is a village in the Chumbi Valley or Yadong County in the Tibet region of China. It is in the valley of Amo Chu where the route from Sikkim's Nathu La pass meets the Amo Chu valley. Chema is in the

Xiayadong Xiayadong Township (), known in Tibetan as Dromo Mechü () is a township in the Chumbi Valley in Yadong County, Shigatse, in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. The township spans an area of , and a population of 1,097 as of 2010. The township ...

Township. Across the river, on its eastern bank is the settlement of Pipitang (), which was described as a flourishing Chinese village in the 19th century. The village got emptied during the period of Tibet's independence (1912–1951). It is now repopulated.

Geography

Chema and Pipitang are four miles to the south of Yatung (Shasima). The track from the Nathu La pass met the Amo Chu valley here, while the track from the

Jelep La Jelep La (; ) elevation , is a high mountain pass between Sikkim, India and Tibet Autonomous Region, China. It is on a route that connects Lhasa to India. The pass is about south of Nathu La and is slightly higher. It was frequently used for ...

pass also joined here via

Rinchengang Rinchengang : "By order of Military Control Commission freedom of movement is not being permitted to our Trade Agents even in the vicinity where the Trade Agencies are located. For example the I.T.A. Yatung was not permitted to go to Rinchengang, ...

. At the present time, the Yanai Road () runs along this route to Nathu La. In December 1903, British travel writer

Laurence Waddell Lieutenant Colonel Laurence Austine Waddell, Order of the Bath, CB, Order of the Indian Empire, CIE, Linnean Society of London, F.L.S., Doctor of Laws, L.L.D, Master of Surgery, M.Ch., Indian Medical Service, I.M.S. Royal Anthropological Instit ...

passed through Chema on his way to Lhasa and described it as follows: His description continued with that of Pipitang: During the period 1894–1903, when a British Indian trade mart was opened at

Old Yatung Old Yatung (), originally just "Yatung", with a native Tibetan spelling of Nyatong: "Miss nnie R.Taylor returned with the object of converting the Tibetan people, and now lives at the town of Nyatong, which by some is called Yatung." or Myatong, ...

near Rinchengang, all the villages in the Chumbi valley were involved with the India–Tibet trade. Pipithang also had many Chinese officials and a '' yamen'' for handling passports and foreign visitors.

Ekai Kawaguchi (February 26, 1866 – February 24, 1945) was a Japanese Buddhist monk who was famed for his four journeys to Nepal (in 1899, 1903, 1905 and 1913) and two to Tibet (July 4, 1900–June 15, 1902, 1913–1915). He was the first recorded J ...

describes the elaborate procedures devised by the Tibetan and Chinese administration for traders visiting India. The senior Chinese official of the ''yamen'' was called ''Popon''. During 1904–1908, when the Chumbi Valley came under the administration of the British per the

Convention of Lhasa The Convention of Lhasa, officially the Convention Between Great Britain and Thibet, was a treaty signed in 1904 between Tibet and Great Britain, in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. It was signed following the British expedition to Tibet of 1903–1 ...

, the Chinese continued to use Pipithang as their base, and attempted to act as if they were still controlling the Chumbi Valley. After 1911 Xinhai Revolution and the Dalai Lama's declaration of independence, all Chinese nationals were forced to leave Tibet. The village of Pipitang was deserted and said to have been in ruins in 1919. A British report in 1940 said that the all the houses except one were washed away in a flood.

Current status

Notes

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * {{citation , first=J. Claude , last=White , title=Sikhim & Bhutan: Twenty-One Years on the North-East Frontier, 1887—1908 , publisher=Edward Arnold , location=London , year=1909 , url=https://archive.org/details/dli.granth.88535 , via=archive.org Populated places in Shigatse Yadong County