Chumbi Valley

China agreed to pay the indemnity owed by the Tibetans in three installments and the Chumbi Valley was transferred back to Tibet on 8 February 1908.[11][12] The Chumbi valley, belonging to Tibet (now part of PRC), is sandwiched between two Himalayan states: Sikkim to the west and Bhutan to the east.Scholar Susan Walcott counts China's Chumbi Valley and India's Siliguri Corridor to its south among "strategic mountain chokepoints critical in global power competition".[13] John Garver has called the Chumbi Valley "the single most strategically important piece of real estate in the entire Himalayan region".[14] The Chumbi Valley intervenes between Sikkim and Bhutan south of the high Himalayas, pointing towards India's Siliguri Corridor like a "dagger".Following the Anglo-Chinese treaty of 1890 and Younghusband expedition, the British established trading posts at Yatung and Lhasa, along with military detachments to protect them.In the ensuing artillery fire, states scholar Taylor Fravel, many Chinese fortifications were destroyed as the Indians controlled the high ground.A claim to the Mount Gipmochi and the Zompelri ridge would bring the Chinese to the very edge of the Himalayas, from where the slopes descend into the southern foothills of Bhutan and India.[30] A more graphic development is stated under the name of a Sakya governor Phakpa Balzang ('Phags-pa-dpal-bzang) in the mid-14th century, who is said to have invited 150 chiefs and teachers from Paro, Haa and other places for a feast in Phari and have them all killed.After this, these regions came under his control and he is said to have constructed a dzong and trade marts at Phari, appointing his younger brother Phakpa Rinchen (’Phags-pa-rin-chen) as the first district governor.[40] In the following decades, Sikkim established relations with the British East India Company and regained some of its lost territory after an Anglo-Nepalese War.
Map 1: An 1888 map of the Empire of China by Edward Stanford narrowed down to the borders with Bhutan. The Chumbi Valley to its west and the Tawang tract to its east were both regarded by the British as "dangerous wedges" in the Himalayas.
Map 2: Map of Chumbi Valley ( AMS , 1955)
Map 3: Tibet's Chumbi Valley pointing towards India's Siliguri Corridor between Nepal and Bangladesh
Dungkar Monastery , 6 miles to the north of Yatung. This is the entrance to the main shrine room with the house of the Abbot on the right. Photo taken 1 January 1927.
ChumbiChumbi (disambiguation)Standard TibetanNorth Eastern RegionYatungAmo ChhuChineseStandard MandarinHanyu PinyinSikkimBhutanYadong CountyTibet Autonomous RegionNathu LaJelep LaEastern Himalayan broadleaf forestsEastern Himalayan alpine shrub and meadowsPedicularisYounghusband ExpeditionTibetanDzongkha languageGeorge van DriemJoseph Dalton Hookermost prominent townEdward StanfordChola RangeGipmochiChomolhariIndian subcontinentSiliguri CorridorWest BengalArunachal PradeshAnglo-Chinese treaty of 1890border clashesTaylor FravelDoklamBakhtiyar Khiljiinvasion of TibetTibetansKingdom of SikkimHaa ValleyDarjeelingKalimpongunification of NepalGorkhasTeestaSino-Nepalese WarEast India CompanyAnglo-Nepalese WarTreaty of TumlongAnglo-Chinese treatyprotectorateTeesta RiverNathu La and Cho La clashesHooker, Joseph DaltonJoshi, ManojBell, CharlesEncyclopædia Britannica