Daulat Beg Oldi
Daulat Beg Oldi | |
---|---|
Military Base | |
UTC+5:30 (IST ) |
Daulat Beg Oldi (also Oldie, DBO) is a traditional campsite and current military base located in the midst of the Karakoram Range in northern Ladakh, India. It is on the historic trade route between Ladakh and the Tarim Basin, and is the last campsite before the Karakoram Pass. It is said to be named after Sultan Said Khan ("Daulat Beg"), who died here on his return journey from an invasion of Ladakh and Kashmir. Chip Chap River, the main headwater of the Shyok River, flows just to the south. The Line of Actual Control with Chinese-controlled Aksai Chin is five miles to the east.
An Indian border outpost was established here in the summer of 1960.
Location and physical conditions
Daulat Beg Oldi (DBO) lies at the northeastern corner of the
The temperature plummets as low as -55 C in the winters. The weather deteriorates frequently with strong icy winds lashing much of DBO. DBO has very little if any vegetation or wildlife. Communication is possible only through
History
Expedition of Said Khan (Etymology)
Daulat Beg Oldi literally means "spot where the great and rich man died"[5] in Turki.[6] There are various folklore about whom this refers to—such as the tale about this place being the location where a large caravan was destroyed,[7] or the tale about this place being the burial site of a rich man and his treasure.[8]
According to British colonial-era surgeon
The account of this military expedition was recorded by his general, Mirza Muhammad Haidar Dughlat, who was the Sultan's first cousin, in the history titled Tarikh-i-Rashidi (تاریخ رشیدی) (History of Rashid).[10]
In autumn 1531 (Safar 938
On his way back to Yarkand in the summer of 1533 (end of 939 AH), the Sultan once again suffered severe altitude sickness. This time he succumbed near Karakoram Pass. Bellew argues that the location of his death was at Daulat Beg Oldi. News of the sultan's death led to a bloody struggle for the succession, ending in the ascension of Abdurashid Khan. Abdurashid Khan recalled the forces in Tibet and exiled Haidar. By then, Haidar had had some successes against the Changpa Tibetans of Baryang, but his forces suffered greatly from the altitude and elements. By the time the army returned to Yarkand, of the original several thousands, fewer than a dozen were left. The exiled Haidar took refuge with his maternal aunt in Badakhshan. He eventually joined the ranks of the Mughal Empire, where he wrote the Tarikh-i-Rashidi.[9][14][15]
Modern era
The trade route via the Karakoram Pass was used by caravans traveling between Leh and the
But on the other hand the caravans come and go incessantly, in the summer, in astonishing numbers. The first one of the season passed on June 28th, coming from Sanju on the Yarkand road; then more and larger ones came; in July there were four in one day, almost all travelling from Central Asia toward Leh—the Ladakhis usually do their trading at home. The caravans were of all sizes, from small groups of 3 or 4 men with 5 or 6 animals to large parties with 40 or more pack-animals; the men on foot or riding asses, the better-to-do merchants on caparisoned horses ...
Filippi also wrote that the experienced caravaners passed through the Depsang Plains without stopping, travelling a distance of 31 miles between Daulat Beg Oldi and
The trading caravans declined during the 1940s during tensions in
Sino-Indian border dispute
The Republic of China (1912–1949), having faced a revolution in Tibet in 1911, apparently made secret plans to acquire Aksai Chin plateau in order to create a road link between Xinjiang and Tibet. These plans began to get manifested in public maps only towards the end of its rule.[19]
While the Republic of China claims included the Aksai Chin proper, they stopped well behind the Karakoram mountains, leaving all the rivers that flow into the Shyok River within India, including the Chip Chap River. (See map.) Communist China also published the "Big Map of the People's Republic of China" in 1956 with a similar boundary, now called the 1956 claim line.[20][21]
However, in 1960 China advanced its claim line further west, dissecting the Chip Chap River.[21] The Chinese said little by way of justification for this advancement other than to claim that it was their "traditional customary boundary" which was allegedly formed through a "long historical process". They claimed that the line was altered in the recent past only due to "British imperialism".[e][22][23][24]
Meanwhile, India continued to claim the entire Aksai Chin plateau.
1960–1962
A border post was established at Daulat Beg Oldi (DBO) in 1960 under the supervision of the Intelligence Bureau (IB). By September 1961, the Chinese had established a post in the Chip Chap Valley about 4 miles east of the DBO post as well as roads leading to it.[1][25] The Indian Army then set up posts at Burtsa, Qizil Langar, at a 'track junction' in the Depsang Plains and at Sultan Chushku. These were intended to block any further extension of Chinese roads. The Intelligence Bureau post at DBO was also reinforced with an Army unit.[25]
The DBO post was fired upon by Chinese forces during the Sino-Indian War on 21 July and 4 August 1962.[26]
1962–present
In April 2013, a platoon-sized contingent of the
Transportation
Advanced Landing Ground
Daulat Beg Oldi Advanced Landing Ground AMSL | 16,730 ft / 5,099 m |
---|
The
The
DS-DBO Road
In 2001, the Indian government decided to construct a motorable road from Leh to Daulat Beg Oldi. The road was completed in 2019. The 255-km is
India-China Border Meeting point
Daulat Beg Oldi –
A meeting hut was constructed approximately a year after the meeting point was opened.[39]
See also
- Fukche Advanced Landing Ground
- China National Highway 219
- Depsang Plains
- Thoise
- Tianwendian
- India-China Border Roads
- List of locations in Aksai Chin
Notes
- ^ From map: "THE DELINEATION OF INTERNATIONAL BOUNDARIES ON THIS MAP MUST NOT BE CONSIDERED AUTHORITATIVE"
- ^ Even though the map is of very low resolution, it is apparent that the Chip Chap River is shown entirely within Ladakh. Qaratagh-su, a stream that flows down from the Qaratagh Pass and joins the Karakash River is shown as the source of Karakash. Karackattu, The Corrosive Compromise (2020, Figure 1) gives more detailed maps showing Samzungling and Galwan river as part of Ladakh.
- ^ Map by the US Army Headquarters in 1962. In addition to the two claim lines, the blue line indicates the position in 1959, the purple line that in September 1962 prior to the Sino-Indian War, and the orange line, which largely coincides with the dark brown line, the position the end of the war. The dotted lines bound a 20-km demilitarisation zone proposed by China after the war.
- ^ The purple line's intersection with the Galwan valley indicates the location of a Chinese 'Day 9' post, whose domination by an Indian post on higher ground caused an "apogee of tension".
- ^ But the military justification for the advancement is not hard to see. The 1956 claim line ran along the watershed dividing the Shyok River basin and the Lingzitang lake basin. It conceded the strategic higher ground of the Karakoram Range to India. The 1960 claim line advanced it to the Karakoram ridge line despite the fact that it did not form a dividing line of watersheds.
References
- ^ a b Hoffmann, India and the China Crisis (1990), p. 95.
- ^ India completes vital Ladakh road, The Tribune, 23 April 2019.
- ^ India, Ministry of External Affairs, ed. (1962), Report of the Officials of the Governments of India and the People's Republic of China on the Boundary Question, Government of India Press, Chinese Report, Part 1 (PDF) (Report). pp. 4–5.
The location and terrain features of this traditional customary boundary line are now described as follows in three sectors, western, middle and eastern. ... The portion between Sinkiang and Ladakh for its entire length runs along the Karakoram Mountain range. Its specific location is as follows: From the Karakoram Pass it runs eastwards along the watershed between the tributaries of the Yarkand River on the one hand and the Shyok River on the other to a point approximately 78° 05' E, 35° 33' N, turns southwestwards and runs along a gully to approximately 78° 01' E, 35° 21' N; where it crosses the Chipchap River. It then turns south-east along the mountain ridge and passes through peak 6,845 (approximately 78° 12' E, 34° 57' N) and peak 6,598 (approximately 78° 13' E, 34° 54' N). - ^ PTI (19 April 2013). "Chinese troops intrude into Indian territory in Ladakh, erect a tented post". The Economic Times. Retrieved 2 January 2020.
The nearest inhabited town is Murgo to the south, which has a small population of Baltis who primarily depend on apricot farming and yak rearing.
- ^ Swami, Praveen (23 April 2013). "Ladakh incursion: India, China face-off at the 'gate of hell'". Firstpost. Retrieved 2 January 2020.
Daulat Beg Oldi, the spot where the great and rich man died
- JSTOR 1798763.
Daulat Beguldi (Turki for "Daulat Beg died", an appropriate name for so desolate a spot)
- ISBN 978-81-7099-011-6.
Daulat Beg and his large caravan was entirely destroyed about eighteen miles from the Karakoram pass on the Indian side.
- ISBN 978-81-7387-181-8.
It was believed that the rich man, Daulat Beg was buried here with his treasure.
- ^ ISBN 978-81-7387-106-1.
According to H.W. Bellew, he was no ordinary traveller but a great warrior, a partisan of Babur, the conqueror of Ferghana and the king of Yarkand and Kashgar.
- ^ a b Bellew, Henry Walter (1875). The history of Káshgharia. Calcutta: Foreign Department Press. pp. 66–67.
(p66) Daulat Beg Uild ... "The lord of the State died" ... (p67) Hydar ... wrote the Tarikhi Rashidi from which these details are derived
- ISBN 978-0-429-87141-2.
Daulat Bak Oldi (the royal prince died here), close to the Karakorum pass, is so called because Sultan Said Khan of Kashgar, on his return from a successful campaign against West Tibet, died here from mountain sickness (Plate 50)
- ISBN 9789004271807: "When his Khan decided to return home because of ill health, leaving Mirza Haidar to destroy "the idol temple of Ursang (i.e. Lhasa)", he "set out from Maryul in Tibet, for Yarkand". He "crossed the pass of Sakri", which must be that above Sakti (not the Kardung pass as Elias and Ross suggest), descended to Nubra and died at a camping place named Daulat Beg Uldi which is two-and-a-half hours below the Karakoram Pass."
- ^ ISBN 978-8129117618.
Some 400 years earlier, in ad 1527, a Yarkandi invader, Sultan Saiad Khan Ghazi (also known as Daulat Beg) of Yarkand, briefly conquered Kashmir after fighting a battle along this pass. He died in 1531 at Daulat Beg Oldi (meaning, where Daulat Beg died) at the foot of the Karakoram pass, after he was returning from an unsuccessful attempt to invade Tibet.
- ^ a b Bellew, Henry Walter (1875). "Kashmir and Kashghar. A narrative of the journey of the embassy to Kashghar in 1873-74". Trubner & Co. pp. 95–98. Retrieved 3 January 2020 – via Internet Archive.
- ISBN 978-3-8258-8586-1. Retrieved 2 January 2020.
On the 16th dhu-l-hiddjja 939/July 9th, 1533, on the way back from campaign in Minor Tibet (Ladakh) the founder of the Moghuliyya-Chaghataid state in Eastern Turkestan, Sultan Said-khan died.
- ^ a b Filippi, Filippo de (1932), The Italian Expedition to the Himalaya, Karakoram and Eastern Turkestan (1913-1914), London: Edward Arnold & Co., pp. 311–312 – via archive.org
- ^
Fewkes, Jacqueline H. (2008), Trade and Contemporary Society Along the Silk Road: An Ethno-history of Ladakh, Routledge, pp. 140–142, ISBN 978-1-135-97309-4
- ProQuest 1879722382
- ^ Hudson, Aksai Chin (1963), pp. 17–18: "As a part of India, it [Aksai Chin] formed an awkward salient projecting between Sinkiang and Tibet; to get rid of this salient must be an objective of Chinese policy whenever opportunity might offer".
- ^ Fisher, Rose & Huttenback, Himalayan Battleground (1963), p. 103: 'However, the "Big Map of the People's Republic of China" published in 1956, reverted to the alignment shown on the 1947 Kuomintang map. It is important to note that Chou En-lai, in a letter of December 17, 1959, stated that the 1956 map "correctly shows the traditional boundary between the two countries in this sector."'
- ^ a b Hoffmann, India and the China Crisis (1990), pp. 76, 93
- ^ Fisher, Rose & Huttenback, Himalayan Battleground (1963), pp. 7–8: "When questioned on the divergence between the two maps, Chen Yi, the Chinese Foreign Minister, made the demonstrably absurd assertion that the boundaries as marked on both maps were equally valid. There is only one interpretation that could make this statement meaningful: this was an implied threat to produce another map claiming additional Indian territory if New Delhi continued in its stubborn refusal to cede Aksai Chin."
- ^ Raghavan, War and Peace in Modern India (2010), p. 266: "Beijing insisted that there was no disparity between its maps of 1956 and 1960, a claim that only served to reinforce Delhi’s opinion that the Chinese were untrustworthy. By the summer of 1960 meaningful diplomacy juddered to a halt."
- ^ Van Eekelen, Indian Foreign Policy and the Border Dispute (1967), pp. 101–102: "The Chinese officials maintained ... [the] traditional customary line, reflected in their map, was formed gradually through a long historical process, mainly by the extent up to which each side had exercised administrative jurisdiction;... Without admitting any inconsistency they also argued that the line of actual control differed from the traditional customary line because of British imperialism and the recent pushing forward of India. These factors apparently could not contribute to the continuous process of change."
- ^ a b Kler, Unsung Battles of 1962 (1995), pp. 350–351.
- ISBN 978-93-85563-46-1
- ^ "India is no Pushover". Retrieved 7 May 2013.
- ^ "China's Ladakh Incursion Well-planned". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 30 April 2013. Retrieved 7 May 2013.
- ^ "China's Helicopters Violate Indian Airspace". Archived from the original on 13 May 2013. Retrieved 7 May 2013.
- ^ "IAF Aircraft lands at the highest airstrip in the world". The Times of India. 31 May 2008. Archived from the original on 3 October 2012. Retrieved 31 May 2008.
- ^ "IAF reopens old airbase in Ladakh region". The Times of India. 31 May 2008. Retrieved 31 May 2008.
- ^ "IAF reopens old air base near China border". The Times of India. 31 May 2008. Archived from the original on 22 October 2012. Retrieved 31 May 2008.
- ^ "IAF's C-130J transporter lands near India-China border". Business Standard. 20 August 2013. Retrieved 20 August 2013.
- ^ "10 reasons why IAF's C-130J Super Hercules landing in Daulat Beg Oldie, Ladakh is important". India Today. 20 August 2013. Retrieved 20 August 2013.
- ^ "In show of strength to China, Air Force lands C 130J-30 at Daulat Beg Oldie". NDTV. 20 August 2013. Retrieved 20 August 2013.
- ^ "India completes vital Ladakh road".
- ^ a b "Indian, Chinese armies decide to improve ties at functional level". News18. 2 January 2016. Retrieved 14 September 2017.
- ^ Akhzer, Adil (15 August 2015). "New Indo-China border meeting point at Daulat Beg Oldie in Ladakh sector". The Indian Express. Retrieved 26 April 2016.
- ^ "India, China hold meet in Ladakh on Independence Day". India at Melbourne. 16 August 2016. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 19 November 2017.
Bibliography
- Fisher, Margaret W.; Rose, Leo E.; Huttenback, Robert A. (1963), Himalayan Battleground: Sino-Indian Rivalry in Ladakh, Praeger – via archive.org
- Hoffmann, Steven A. (1990), India and the China Crisis, University of California Press, ISBN 978-0-520-06537-6
- Kler, Gurdip Singh (1995), Unsung Battles of 1962, Lancer Publishers, ISBN 978-1-897829-09-7
- Hudson, G. F. (1963), "Aksai Chin", Far Eastern Affairs, St. Antony's Papers, vol. 14, London: Chatto & Windus
- Karackattu, Joe Thomas (2020). "The Corrosive Compromise of the Sino-Indian Border Management Framework: From Doklam to Galwan". Asian Affairs. 51 (3): 590–604. S2CID 222093756.
- Mullik, B. N. (1971), My Years with Nehru: The Chinese Betrayal, Allied Publishers
- Raghavan, S. (27 August 2010). War and Peace in Modern India. Palgrave Macmillan UK. ISBN 978-0-230-24215-9.
- Sandhu, P. J. S.; Shankar, Vinay; Dwivedi, G. G. (2015), 1962: A View from the Other Side of the Hill, Vij Books India Pvt Ltd, ISBN 978-93-84464-37-0
- Van Eekelen, Willem Frederik (1967), Indian Foreign Policy and the Border Dispute with China, Springer, ISBN 978-94-017-6555-8
- Van Eekelen, Willem (2015), Indian Foreign Policy and the Border Dispute with China: A New Look at Asian Relationships, BRILL, ISBN 978-90-04-30431-4
- Van Eekelen, Willem (2015), Indian Foreign Policy and the Border Dispute with China: A New Look at Asian Relationships, BRILL,