Daba (; ) or Danbab () is a

township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

under the administration of

Zanda County 13-06-2025 Zanda County or Tsamda County (, zh, s=札达县) is a county in the Ngari Prefecture to the extreme west of the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. Its seat of power is at Tholing, the former capital of the Guge kingdom. Zanda is said ...

in the

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...

region of

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

, centred at the Daba village.

Geography

The Daba village is on the bank of the Daba Chu river, a tributary of the

Sutlej River The Sutlej River or the Satluj River is a major river in Asia, flowing through China, India and Pakistan, and is the longest of the five major rivers of the Punjab region. It is also known as ''Satadru''; and is the easternmost tributary of th ...

. The township of Daba spans both the banks of the Sutlej river, up to the Burang County and the Manasarovar region. It stretches to the south until the Indian border. Daba village and township are close to the Indian border. On the Indian side of the border are Garhwal and Kumaon regions of India's

Uttarakhand Uttarakhand (, ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; List of renamed places in India, the official name until 2007), is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. The state is bordered by Himachal Pradesh to the n ...

state. The Niti Pass and the have served as the main historical trade routes. Since 1954, China has disputed the Indian control over the Barahoti region along the border. , the Daba township has two other villages in addition to Daba: * Dongbo Village (, ) * Kyunglung Village (, )

History

In the mid-19th century, Henry Strachey mentioned that Daba Dzong was one of the two dzongs in the

Guge Guge () was an ancient dynastic kingdom in Western Tibet. The kingdom was centered in present-day Zanda County, Ngari Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region. At various points in history after the 10th century AD, the kingdom held sway over a vast a ...

region of Ngari, the other being

Tsaparang Tsaparang () was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Guge in the Garuda Valley, through which the upper Sutlej River flows, in Ngari Prefecture (Western Tibet) near the border of Ladakh. It is 278 km south-southwest of Shiquanhe, Senggezan ...

. The Tibetan governor at Daba was called ''kharpön'', subordinate to the ''garpön'' stationed at

Gartok Gartok () is made of twin encampment settlements of Gar Günsa and Gar Yarsa (, Wade–Giles: ''Ka-erh-ya-sha'') in the Gar County in the Ngari Prefecture of Tibet. Gar Gunsa served as the winter encampment and Gar Yarsa as the summer encampment ...

. He was also referred to as ''Deba'' or ''Deva'' at other times. British explorer William Moorcroft travelled to Daba in 1812, via the Niti Pass and then proceeded to

after receiving permission to do so. The surveyor of Garhwal and Kumaon, W. J. Webb, met traders from Daba while surveying the vicinity of the Niti Pass in 1819. He offered to establish a trade mart for Daba traders on the Indian side but was told that it required a permission from the "viceroy of Lhasa". During the Dogra–Tibetan War, Zorawar Singh's forces occupied the Daba Dzong along with all other fortifications in Ngari. They were eventually repulsed by the Tibetan forces and fled to Kumaon. During 17th century, Fateh Shah of Garhwal invaded Tibet, where his sword and armour were preserved in the monastery at Daba for a long time. The ruler of Daba refused to pay its taxes to the Fateh Shah so Garhwal again conquered Daba. Some areas of Tibet accepted dominance of Pawar kings of Garhwal.

References

{{reflist

External links

Daba Township
OpenStreetMap, retrieved 29 January 2022. Township-level divisions of Tibet Zanda County Populated places in Ngari Prefecture