Kongka Pass

The Kongka Pass or Kongka La (Hindi: कोंग्का दर्रा; Chinese: 空喀山口; Standard Tibetan: དགུན་ཁ་ལ[2]) is a high mountain pass of the Chang-Chemno Range on the Line of Actual Control between India and China. China considers the Kongka Pass as its boundary with India, whereas India regards Lanak Pass further east as the boundary.[3] The pass was the location of the Kongka Pass incident, a military skirmish between Chinese and Indian patrol officers in 1959.

Kongka La
Location of Kongka La
Kongka La (Tibet)
Elevation5,171 m (16,965 ft)[1]
LocationIndia–China border
RangeHimalayas
Coordinates34°20′06″N 79°02′07″E
Map including Kongka La (AMS, 1955)[lower-alpha 1]
Kongka Pass
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese空喀山口
Simplified Chinese空喀山口
Tibetan name
Tibetanདགུན་ཁ་ལ

History

In the late 1800s, the pass was referred to as Salmu Kongka and described as a "small pass".[4]

Colonial-era British sources state that the traditional boundary between Ladakh and Tibet accepted by both sides was at Lanak La,[5][6][7][8] but modern scholars such as Larry Wortzel and Allen S. Whiting consider Kongka Pass to be the traditional border.[9][10]

Kongka Pass incident

In October 1959, Indian troops crossed the Kongka Pass[9] while attempting to establish posts at Tsogstsalu, Hot Springs, and Shamal Lungpa.[11] The Line of Actual Control arising from the 1962 war puts Tsogstsalu and Hot Springs on the Indian side and Shamal Lungpa on the Chinese side.

On 20 October, an initial Indian reconnaissance team was captured by the Chinese forces. On 21 October, with signs of Chinese presence becoming available, a larger search party was formed for the missing reconnaissance team.[12] They encountered Chinese soldiers at a hill near the Kongka Pass, and a firefight ensued. Chinese forces had a more favourable position in this engagement.[11] Of the 70 Indian soldiers, nine were killed during the engagement, one died later of his injuries,[13] and seven were taken prisoner (totaling ten when including the reconnaissance team). One Chinese soldier was killed in the engagement.[11][14][15][16]

Indian media described the event a "brutal massacre of an Indian policy party." The incident contributed to the heightening of tensions that led to the Sino-Indian War in 1962.[3][12]

Modern border posts

The Indian border post is located 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) to the west at Hot Springs.[17] The Chinese border outpost is located a few kilometers to the east at the elevation of 5,070 metres (16,630 ft).[18]

Notes
  1. From map: "THE DELINEATION OF INTERNATIONAL BOUNDARIES ON THIS MAP MUST NOT BE CONSIDERED AUTHORITATIVE"
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References
  1. "Kongka La". GeoNames. Retrieved 18 September 2013.
  2. "Ngari prefecture". Geographical names of Tibet AR (China). Institute of the Estonian Language. 3 June 2018. Retrieved 9 January 2020.
  3. Maxwell, Neville (1970). India's China War. New York: Pantheon. p. 13. Retrieved 29 August 2013.
  4. Royal Geographical Society (Great Britain) (1893). Supplementary Papers. J. Murray. p. 10. Leaving [Changchenmo valley] shortly after the Shahidulla road turns off to the left, it ascends to the plateau by a small pass (the Salmu Kongka)
  5. Wellby, M.S. (1898). Through Unknown Tibet. Lippincott. p. 78. ISBN 9788120610583.
  6. Carey, A. D. (1887). "A Journey round Chinese Turkistan and along the Northern frontier of Tibet". Proceedings of the Royal Geographic Society. 9 (12): 731–752. doi:10.2307/1801130. JSTOR 1801130.
  7. Bower, Hamilton, Diary of A Journey across Tibet, London, 1894
  8. Rawling, C. G., The Great Plateau Being An Account Of Exploration In Central Tibet, 1903, And Of The Gartok Expedition 1904–1905, p 38, London, 1905
  9. Wortzel, Larry (2003). Burkitt, Laurie; Scobell, Andrew; Wortzel, Larry (eds.). The Lessons of History: The Chinese People's Liberation Army at 75 (PDF). Strategic Studies Institute, U.S. Army War College. p. 331. ISBN 9781428916517.
  10. Whiting, Allen S. (1987). "The Sino-Soviet Split". In MacFarquhar, Roderick; Fairbank, John K. (eds.). The Cambridge History of China, Volume 14. Cambridge University Press. p. 512. ISBN 978-0-521-24336-0.
  11. "Notes, Memoranda and letters Exchanged and Agreements signed between The Governments of India and China" (PDF). White Paper III. Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India. November 1960 – March 1960. Retrieved 4 January 2020 – via Claude Arpi. [Chinese interrogation of Karam Singh] We established a checkpost at Kayam and we had to establish one at Shamul Lungpa. On 20th October, 1959, our two men missed. On the morning of 21st October 1959 Tyagi took 60 men and reached the hill (battle field). ... [Indian debriefing of Karam Singh] we had inadequate cover and the Chinese were in a favourable position ... five of us were made to carry the dead body of a Chinese soldier who had been killed.
  12. Vivek Ahuja. "Unforgiveable Mistakes, The Kongka-La Incident, 21st October 1959" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 September 2011. Retrieved 2 November 2011.
  13. Bhatnagar, R.R. (November–December 2018). "Hot Springs: Saga of Heroism" (PDF). Indian Police Journal. No. Special Issue on Police Martyrdom. p. 16. ISSN 0537-2429. Retrieved 4 January 2020. Fighting gallantly nine men laid down their lives and ten were wounded. Later on, one of the injured also succumbed to his injuries. ... Seven men were taken Prisoners of War by PLA
  14. Chinese People's Liberation Army Historical Data Series Editorial Board (1997). Communist Remembrance Historical Materials 3. Beijing:解放军出版社. p. 213. ISBN 7-5065-3348-0.
  15. Naifu, Cui, ed. (2002). The People's Republic of China's Toponymic Dictionary Volume 5. Beijing:商印书. p. 7777. ISBN 7-100-03254-7.
  16. "Shuol government information website--Shule County Martyrs Cemetery Maintenance and Reconstruction Project successfully passed the project completion acceptance". Silele County People's Government. Archived from the original on 7 May 2018. Retrieved 6 May 2018.
  17. Jindal, Akash (November–December 2018). "The Story of Hot Springs" (PDF). Indian Police Journal. No. Special Issue on Police Martyrdom. pp. 20–33. ISSN 0537-2429. Retrieved 4 January 2020. (p22) Karam Singh of ITBF was assigned the task of establishing outposts near the Chinese Occupation Line ... “Hot Springs” was barely three Km far from the site where Chinese Army had intruded.
  18. "在海拔5070米的空喀山口哨卡某边防团政委宗建明和官兵深情的拥抱". Sina Military (in Chinese). 17 September 2009. Retrieved 14 December 2019.


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