My book on Cooch Behar (p423-4) has an appendix with information on the
Bhutan and Sikkim enclaves in Tibet (see below, you can buy copies from
the links at http://www.geography.unimelb.edu.au/research/papers.html).
No maps, as I have never seen one, though several of the places can be
found on a decent map of Tibet. Some are near Mt Kailash.
Sikkimese & Bhutanese enclaves in Tibet ( -
c.1959)
Sikkim and Bhutan also apparently each had exclaves in Tibet. The
pre-war traveller and scholar Swami Pranavananda mentioned the Bhutanese
enclaves in his account of Tibet,
"About 300 (?) years back one famous Bhutanese Lama by name
Ngava-Namgyal got the village of Tarchhen from the Tibetan Government for
his stay near Kailas. Through his influence he had built Nyanri and other
monasteries and gained influence over some other places later on.
Tarchhen, at the foot of Kailas, Nyanri and Zuthul-phuk Monasteries of
Kailas, Cherkip Gompa of Manasarovar, the villages of Dungmar, Ringung,
Doh, Khochar, Gezon near Gartok, Itse Gompa, Gonphu, Gesur, Samar, and a
few other places in Western Tibet, came to belong to the State of
Bhutan
[1]. These places are now governed by a
Bhutanese monk-officer, whose headquarters is at Tarchhen, where there is
a big building owned by the Bhutan State" (Pranavananda, 1950,
146).
It would appear that about 1640, the King of Ladakh granted a number of
villages in western Tibet to the Shabdrung Rimpoche of Bhutan, Ngawang
Namgyal (b.1594 - d.1651). The villages were granted for the purpose of
meditation and worship. Armington (1998, 17) lists the villages as
"Darchen, Nyanri and Zuthulphuk goembas on the slopes of the holy
Mount Kailas&Other goembas that came under Bhutanese administration
were Rimpung, Doba, Khochag, and De Dzong, all near Gartok". They
were seized from Bhutan by China in 1959 during its repression of a
Tibetan revolt (Armington, 1998, 17).
Sikkim also had two enclaves in Tibet. The
Hindusthan Standard of
reported a Chinese invasion of them
"It is learnt authoritatively that Chinese are in occupation of two
Sikkimese enclaves in Tibet in Dopta and Chumbi. It is further learnt
that high level negotiations are going on between the Government of India
and the Government of China so that Sikkim can get back her lost
territory and vacate Chinese aggression" (Hindusthan Standard,
1961p).
Ten families had fled to Sikkim proper and a further 70 were expected.
The Maharaja of Sikkim himself was resettling the refugees from these
enclaves on his personal lands. On 8 July a follow-up report claimed the
enclaves had actually been under Chinese occupation since 1958 and that
the "people of Sikkim and India have been kept entirely in the
dark". Chumbi was described as the summer palace of the Maharaja and
Doptha was "the property of one Sigmi Taring, nephew of the present
Maharaja of Sikkim". Despite the three year lag, the Sikkim National
Congress called on India to "take necessary steps for the recovery
of these enclaves" (Hindusthan Standard, 1961r).
Four years later, in June 1966, another report in the same paper claimed
that in early 1959 China had also occupied eight Bhutanese enclaves in
Tibet: Khangir, Tarchen, Tsekhor, Diraphu, Dzontuphu, Jangche, Chakip
[Cherkip?] and Kocha [Khochar?], which had been under Bhutanese
administration for over 300 years. The article reminded its readers of
China's 1961 occupation of two Sikkimese enclaves (Hindusthan Standard,
1966o).
In both cases, the strong historical feudal links between the two
Himalayan countries and Tibet suggest the existence of palaces or
monasteries in enclaves of personal property or religious sovereignty, if
not full political sovereignty. Prescott (1976a, 262) mentions the
Maharaja of Sikkim living on "one of his estates in the Chumbi
valley of Tibet", reinforcing a conclusion that these were not fully
sovereign Sikkimese territory before the Chinese takeover.
Another reference to the Bhutanese enclaves was found several years ago
in an Indian yearbook, but it has proved impossible to relocate that
source. No other information has been found on either set of enclaves,
although the unsighted article of Bray (1997) has a promising title.
Neither have any maps been found which locate the enclaves.
If the Indian government, responsible for the foreign relations of
Sikkim and Bhutan, had been aware of the Chinese invasions of these
enclaves at the time, it would probably have been loathe to criticise
China given India's struggle with Portugal over Daman and Nagar Haveli,
and its own 1961 invasion and conquest of Goa.
The similar timing of the sale of Gwadar to Pakistan, the Nehru-Noon
agreement to exchange the Cooch Behar enclaves, and the Chinese invasions
of Sikkimese and Bhutanese enclaves in Tibet would make a fascinating
subject for further research, comparing the attitudes of the three
countries, to the enclaves within them, and also comparing India's
differing policies regarding each case. Unfortunately, it is expected
that few Indian documents, let alone Chinese, regarding the Sikkimese and
Bhutanese enclaves would be available. This is due to the extreme
sensitivity of both countries to their boundaries in the Himalayan
region, the fact that the Sino-Bhutan boundary remains undemarcated, and
also that China continues to insist Sikkim is an independent state, not
recognising the validity of Sikkim's 1974 referendum to join
India.
[1] The as yet unclimbed Mt Kailash, or Kangrinpoche,
in western Tibet. Sacred to Bhuddists, it attracts pilgrims who
circumnavigate it. Manasarovar, or Mapam Tso, is a sacred lake between Mt
Kailash and the Tibet-Nepal boundary.
REFERENCES:
Pranavananda, Swami, (1950),
Exploration in Tibet, University of
Calcutta, Calcutta.
Bray, John, (1997), Ladakhi and Bhutanese enclaves in Tibet, <page
numbers of article unknown> in Dodin, Thierry, and Heinz Räther
(eds.), (1997),
Recent Research on Ladakh 7. Proceedings of the 7th
Colloquium of the International Association for Ladakh Studies,
Bonn/St.Augustin, 12-15 June 1995. Ulmer Kulturantropologische
Schriften Band 9. Universität Ulm, Ulm. ISBN 3 930983 06 0.
Dr Brendan Whyte
University of Melbourne