Darchen! Unbelievable! Never had I thought that I was in a Bhutanese
exclave when I circled around Mt Kailash in September 1994.
Darchen consisted - at that time - of an assembly of Tibetan dwellings, a
"poor" caravanseray-type restaurant/hotel and the idea of a toilet located over
a small stream, open to the curious views of the locals (How do they do it,
those Westerners? Is it true that theis is longer than
ours?)
Close-by, behind a wall, the Chinese began building a "true" hotel. At
least they had been able, to that point, affixing a metal plaque at the wall
describing in glorious language what their intentions were.
There
were also Tibetan (prostitutes?) who believed they should behave and clothe like
Chinese - ridiculous - deplorabe?
Now,
as I hear, they are building a road around Mt Kailash, to attract more tourists.
I see with pleasure that tourists will fly in Through Lhasa, travel without
acclimatization to Darchen, step out of their car on the pass behind Mt Kailash
- 5600 m high - and collapse. What a nice experience must that
be!
Good
luck to Darchen. You won't survive.
Wolfgang
Thanks
Chris... here is what I dreamt up about the subject:
a. There were seven Bhutanese exclaves.
b. Their
names were:
- Taharen (also:
Darchen / Tarchen and [to the Chinese:
Daerjing)
-
Tsehher
-
Diraphu
- Dzung
Tuphu
-
Jangeke
-
Chahip
-
Cooha
c. Darchen was the administrative capital of
the region, located
at 80'20" E and 30'55" N, about 100 yeards from the
foothills of Mt.
Kailash. Kailash is about 100 miles directly north
of the
northwesternmost tip of Nepal - a good 300 to 400 miles from
Bhutan,
regardless of whether you are a walking or flying crow.
According to
literature, Darchen under the Bhutanese consisted of a temple,
a "poor
restaurant" and a teahouse.
d. To the
Bhutanese, theses possessions were collectively known as
"Northern
Kangri".
e. In 1949, Bhutan's entered into
the treaty with India about
which you read in a couple of messages earlier,
under which it agreed
to be "guided" by India (not subservient to India)
with respect to its
foreign relations. The treaty replaced the
earlier one that it had
with the UK, which had quit India. Under the
treaty, the Bhutanese
sought out Indian assistance in getting a complaint
lodged with China
about the Chinese interfering with the Bhutanese
government's
official courier to the area, and for preventing the courier
from
seeking protection of the Indians at the Indian Trade Agency
offices
in Tibet.
On 19 August 1959, India issued a letter of protest to
China about
this matter on Bhutan's behalf.
f.
Shortly after the complaint was filed, Chinese soldiers
occupied the
exclaves. Another complaint letter was requested and was
issued, but
to no avail.
g. Shortly after that, Bhutan closed its
border with Tibet (it is
still closed to this day). It withdrew the
Lamas from the embassy
(called a "trade mission" by British envoy
Williamson in his map of
Lhasa) and the exclaves and essentially abandoned
them. (I've heard
that the former governor from the exclaves is alive
today and living
in Bhutan).
h. Bhutan also
possesses a Stupa near Kathhmandu. It may be only
extraterritorial -
I've not been able to ascertain that.
i. Bhutan also
possesses or possessed two plots of land in
Kalimpong, India, which were
left to it when the rest of what was
known under British rule as "British
Bhutan" - an area SW of Bhutan
and S of Sikkim, which Britain annexed in
the 1860s in retribution for
Bhutanese acts that caused the Duar War.
A Bhutanese post office
operated there in the early to mid 1960s. On
these plots there are
what are known as the Old and New Bhutan
Houses. They were owned by
the royal family, which I hear placed one
or both of them up for sale
sometime in the last couple of years. I
do not know if they have been
sold or whether the sale means Bhutan had
effectively abandoned these
plots, too. A measure of the sovereignty
Bhutan exercized over these
plots can be traced from the aftermath of a
murder committed on one of
the plots. The alleged murderer was
not subject to Indian
jurisprudence... the Bhutanese caretaker who served
the royals in the
late 20th centure wrote me in early 1992 that the
Bhutanese officials
spirited the fellow across Indian territory to Bhutan
proper to face
justice in Bhutan.
j. RE:
Dewangiri. It's not a "strip of land", but more like a
square that
jutted into the Bhutanese foothills when it was Indian.
It is the site of
a Bhutanese fort from which the Bhutanese caused the
British a bitter
humiliation in the Duar War. The area is now the
territory that
surrounds the Bhutanese town of Deothang to its south -
in days past the
town name was spelled "Dewathang". You can see the
relationship in
the names. The Indian constitution prohibits the
government of India
from giving away national territory. The fact
that Dewangiri was
returned indicates that it was never considered
part and parcel of India -
perhaps only "occupied" despite having been
"annexed".
Dream on Mr.
A.
LN