Demchok (),Tibet Autonomous Region (China): Ngari Prefecture, KNAB Place Name Database, retrieved 27 July 2021. previously called New Demchok, and called Parigas () by the Chinese, is a Town and military encampment in the Indian-administered Demchok sector, that is disputed between India and China. It is administered as part of the Anlay tehsil in the Changthang district of Ladakh by India, and claimed by China as part of the Tibet Autonomous Region.
The Line of Actual Control (LAC) passes along the southeast side of the village, along the Charding Nullah (also called Demchok River and Lhari stream) which joins the Indus River near the village. Across the stream, less than a kilometre away, is a Chinese-administered Demchok village.
Etymology
The village of Demchok was apparently named after Demchok Karpo (also "Demchok Lhari Karpo"), the rocky white peak behind the present Ladakhi village of Demchok. However, prior to 1947, the main Demchok village was on the Tibetan side of the border. The Ladakhi side of the settlement was still referred to as "Demchok".
Chinese officials use the name "Demchok" only for the Tibetan side of the settlement and refer to the Ladakhi side as "Parigas" (also spelt "Barrigas").During border discussions in the 1960s, the Chinese government called the Indian village "Parigas" and the Chinese village "Demchok": . Chinese officials state: "Parigas was part of the Demchok area. West of Demchok, after crossing the Chopu river, one arrived at Parigas." : "In fact, it was Indian troops who on September 18, intruded into the vicinity of the Demchok village on the Chinese side of the 'line of actual control' after crossing the Demchok River from Parigas..." This is apparently derived from a Tibetan name Palichasi (),Tibet Autonomous Region (China): Ngari Prefecture, KNAB Place Name Database, retrieved 27 July 2021. Coordinates . of a pastoral ground known to Ladakhis as Silungle, roughly halfway downstream to Lagankhel.Tibet Autonomous Region (China): Ngari Prefecture, KNAB Place Name Database, retrieved 27 July 2021. Coordinates .Map no. 3279, tibetmap.com, retrieved 17 September 2021.Silungle marked on OpenStreetMap, retrieved 17 September 2021.
Geography
Demchok is at an elevation of , on a stony plain at the foot of a pyramidal white peak called Demchok Lhari Karpo. A stream called Charding Nullah (or Lhari stream) flows down on the southeast side of Demchok joining the Indus River. The alluvial deposits from the stream form small plots for grazing and farming. Around the corner of the Demchok Lhari Karpo peak is a hot spring near Demchok, whose water is believed to have medicinal qualities.
The Line of Actual Control (LAC) with Tibet runs on the southeast side of the village along the Charding Nullah. Across the stream, 600 metres away, is the Tibetan Demchok village. After reaching the Indus River, the LAC follows its right bank, according to Indian explorer Romesh Bhattacharji.: "The LAC, [from] about 6 km short of Demchog, follows the right bank of the Indus, which can be waded across here. Trucks from China regularly come defiantly close to this point." leaving the left bank of Indus under Indian control. The Chinese still retain a claim to the Indian part of the disputed Demchok sector and object to any construction there.: "Yet, in November 2009, in brazen defiance of customs and international law, when people from [a satellite settlement in the] Demchog village, which is 8 km up the Charding Chu adjacent to the check post, decided to build a road under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, the Chinese successfully prevented them from doing so." Along the left bank of the Indus River, numerous streams flow down from the ridge line in the west to the Indus, providing grazing grounds and campsites to the Changpa nomads. The largest of these is the site of Lagankhel (La Ganskyil), which is historically regarded as a village with permanent settlement. Some of these locations are now said to host posts of Indo-Tibetan Border Police as does the Demchok village itself.CPWD to lay three roads on China border in Ladakh, The Hindu, 21 March 2021.
An old travel route from Ladakh to Tibet, leading to Kailas–Manasarowar, runs along the left bank of the Indus River. The route has been closed since the emergence of Sino-Indian border disputes. There have been persistent demands from the local population to reopen it.
History
Demchok is a historic area of Ladakh, having been part of the kingdom from its inception in the 10th century. The description of the kingdom in the Ladakh Chronicles mentions Demchok Karpo, also called Demchok Lhari Karpo or Lhari Karpo, as part of the original kingdom. This is a possible reference to the rocky white peak behind the present-day Demchok village.Lhari peak and the Demchok villages, OpenStreetMap, retrieved 9 August 2020.; ;
The Lhari peak is held sacred by Buddhists. Demchok (Sanskrit: ) is the name of a Buddhist Tantric deity, who is believed to reside on the Mount Kailas, and whose imagery parallels that of Shiva in Hinduism.: "For Hindus, Kailas is home to the great pan-Indian deity Shiva and for Tibetan Buddhists, it is home to the bodhisattva Dem-chog, the Sanskrit deity Chakrasamvara." The Lhari peak is also referred to as "Chota Kailas" (mini Kailas) and attracts both Hindu and Buddhists pilgrims.First ever Chhota Kailash Yatra begins in Ladakh, State Times, 22 June 2017.First batch of Chota Kailash Yatra leaves for Demchok, Daily Excelsior, 23 June 2017. Tibetologist Nirmal C. Sinha states that Demchok is part of the Hemis complex.: "Demchock is a sacred place within the Hemis complex. The Hemis complex is very ancient (old Sects) and antedates considerably the Yellow Sect and the rise of the Dalai Lamas." Ruined houses belonging to the Hemis monastery were noticed by Sven Hedin in 1907, and the monastery continues to own land in Demchok.P.Stobdan, Ladakh concern overrides LAC dispute, The Tribune, 28 May 2020.
The stream that flows beside the Lhari peak, referred to as the Lhari stream in historical documents ("Charding Nullah" or "Demchok River" in modern times), was set as the boundary between Ladakh and Tibet at the end of the Tibet–Ladakh–Mughal War in the 17th century.A number of historians and Tibetologists have noted this fact: : "... the border between Ladakh and Tibet was fixed at the Lha-ri stream, which flows into the Indus five miles southeast of Demchok". : "With this exception [of Men-ser], the frontier was fixed at the Lha-ri stream near bDe-mc'og." : "Now, in 1684, the government of Tibet, headed by the sDe-pa Sans-rGyas rGya-mTsho, annexed Gu-ge to Tibet, and fixed the frontier between Ladakh and Tibet at the lHa-ri stream at bDe-mChog." : "The boundary between Ladakh and Tibet was to be established at the Lha-ri stream in Demchog..." : "The frontier with Tibet was fixed at the Lha ri stream at Bde mchog (Demchok), approximately at that places where it is even today." : "The hill of Lahri [Lhari] that stands near Demchok was fixed as the boundary between Lhasa and Ladakh." expresses doubts: "There can be no doubt that the 1684 (or 1683) agreement between Ladakh and the authorities then controlling Tibet did in fact take place. Unfortunately, no original text of it has survived and its terms can only be deduced. In its surviving form there seems to be a reference to a boundary point at "the Lhari stream at Demchok", a stream which would appear to flow into the Indus at Demchok and divide that village into two halves."
Dogra rule
In 1834, the Dogra general Zorawar Singh conquered Ladakh and made it a tributary of the Sikh Empire. Zorawar Singh is said to have built a fort on a hill next to the Tibetan side of Demchok. He also launched an invasion of Tibet via three wings, one of which passed through Demchok. The invasion was eventually repulsed. The two sides agreed to retain the borders as they were before.
The Dogras came under the suzerainty of British Raj in 1846, as the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Henry Strachey visited the Demchok area in 1847, as part of a British boundary commission. He described Demchok as a "hamlet divided by a rivulet [the Lhari stream]", with settlements on both the sides of the stream. The stream was the prevailing border between Ladakh and Tibet.: "Reaching it from Hanle, Strachey found Demchok a hamlet of half a dozen huts, not permanently inhabited, divided into two, one Ladakhi and the other Tibetan, by the rivulet Rha-ri [Lhari stream], which enters the left bank of the Indus." The Tibetans did not allow Strachey to proceed beyond the stream.
The hamlet on the Ladakhi side of the Lhari stream appears to have been minimal. Strachey's own map published in the JRGS showed a village only on the Tibetan side of the stream. The map drawn by a Tibetan lama from the same period showed the same.: "The depiction of Demchok consists of three black tents and a house. Green patches and the Demchok bridge, labelled as Demjok zampa (387), are also depicted.... A fork in the road is clearly visible next to the Demchok Bridge; one route turns [west] before the bridge (coming from the [southeast]), and a second crosses the bridge and continues [northwest]." (Directions adjusted as per map orientation.)
Sven Hedin, travelling through the area in 1907, noticed only ruins of houses on the Ladakhi side, formerly belonging to the Hemis monastery.: "A short distance N. W. of Demchok, the road passes a partly frozen brook [Lhari stream] coming from Demchok-pu, a tributary valley from the left. ... At the left side [Ladakhi side] of the mouth of this little valley, are the ruins of two or three houses, which were said to have belonged to Hemi-gompa. A pyramidal peak at the same.. side of the valley is called La-ri and said to be sacred. The valley, Demchok-pu, itself is regarded as the boundary between Tibet and Ladak." According to the governor of Ladakh (wazir-e-wazarat), who visited the area in 1904–05, there were two 'zaminders' (landholders) on the Ladakhi side, viz., the representatives of the Hemis monastery and the former kardar (tax collector) of Rupshu.: "I visited Demchok on the boundary with Lhasa. ... A nullah falls into the Indus river from the south-west and it (Demchok) is situated at the junction of the river. Across is the boundary of Lhasa, where there are 8 to 9 huts of the Lhasa zamindars. On this side there are only two zamindars. The one is the agent of the Gopa [Gompa] and the other is the agent of the previous Kardar of Rokshu." The two appear to have lived in Demchok from around 1921, in a single building.
According to the Indian government, the Ladakhi Demchok village was used for seasonal cultivation by nomadic farmers.
Independent India
The princely state of Jammu and Kashmir acceded to independent India on 26–27 October 1947.
In 1950, Tibet was annexed by China. The Indian government developed concerns of security and decided not to allow the entry of Tibetans into Ladakh. A border police post was established at Demchok (presumably on the Ladakhi side), with a police contingent headed by an inspector and equipped with wireless communication. In Chinese perception, this amounted to the Indian Army "invading" Demchok.