Dongkya or Dongkhya range, is a

mountain range A mountain range or hill range is a series of mountains or hills arranged in a line and connected by high ground. A mountain system or mountain belt is a group of mountain ranges with similarity in form, structure, and alignment that have arise ...

in the lower Himalayas that forms the eastern border of

Sikkim Sikkim (; ) is a state in Northeastern India. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China in the north and northeast, Bhutan in the east, Province No. 1 of Nepal in the west and West Bengal in the south. Sikkim is also close to the Siligu ...

, currently a state of India. Its northern tip extends to

Dongkha La The Dongkha la or Donkia Pass() (el. ) is a high mountain pass in the Himalaya connecting Sikkim in India with Tibet. Located in North Sikkim, the pass offers a view of the Tibetan Plateau. The nearby Tso Lhamo Lake is long and wide, and ...

, and as it moves southwards, sometimes referred to as the Chola range, it is cut by Cho La, Yak La,

Nathu La Nathu La (, ) is a mountain pass in the Dongkya Range of the Himalayas between China's Yadong County in Tibet, and the Indian states of Sikkim and West Bengal in Bengal, South Asia. The pass, at , connects the towns of Kalimpong and Gangtok ...

and

Jelep La Jelep La (; ) elevation , is a high mountain pass between Sikkim, India and Tibet Autonomous Region, China. It is on a route that connects Lhasa to India. The pass is about south of Nathu La and is slightly higher. It was frequently used fo ...

passes.

Dongkya range and Chola range

S. K. Samanta explains in the ''Indian Journal of Landscape Systems and Ecological Studies'',

Political importance

It was established as the border between

and Tibet's

Chumbi Valley The Chumbi Valley, called Dromo or Tromo in Tibetan, is a valley in the Himalayas that projects southwards from the Tibetan plateau, intervening between Sikkim and Bhutan. It is coextensive with the administrative unit Yadong County in the T ...

by the 1890

Convention of Calcutta The Convention of Calcutta or Anglo-Chinese Convention of 1890, officially the Convention Between Great Britain and China Relating to Sikkim and Tibet, () was a treaty between Britain and Qing China relating to Tibet and the Kingdom of Sikkim. It wa ...

reached between

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

and

Qing China The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

. The Convention deemed the Dongkya Range to end at Mount

Gipmochi Gipmochi (Gyemo Chen or Gamochen, 'The Great Queen') is a mountain in the Lower Himalayas in south central Asia. Rising to a height of , the mountain sits on the border between the northern Indian state of Sikkim and Bhutan. China claims Gipmo ...

at the southern end, which was defined as the trijunction between India, Tibet and Bhutan. However the

Doklam Doklam (), called Donglang () by China, is an area in Bhutan with a high plateau and a valley, lying between China's Chumbi Valley to the north, Bhutan's Ha District to the east and India's Sikkim state to the west. It has been depicted as p ...

plateau at the southern end gives rise to complications and the present day

border dispute A territorial dispute or boundary dispute is a disagreement over the possession or control of land between two or more political entities. Context and definitions Territorial disputes are often related to the possession of natural resources s ...

between Bhutan and China. Dongkya Range is politically important, however S. G. Burrard, H. H. Hayden and A. Heron comment that while Dongkya Range is politically important, "but from a Himalayan point of view too great a topographical emphasis was given to them upon maps".

Passes and peaks

Passes

* Cho La (Chola range) * Yak La (Chola range) *

(Chola range) *

(Chola range)

Mountains

* Pauhunri (7,128 meters) * Chugalung (5,759 meters) * Dopendikang (5,359 meters)

Gallery

File:1898 Sikhim and Adjoining Territories by Waddell.jpg, 1898 Sikhim and Adjoining Territories by

Laurence Waddell Lieutenant Colonel Laurence Austine Waddell, CB, CIE, F.L.S., L.L.D, M.Ch., I.M.S. RAI, F.R.A.S (29 May 1854 – 19 September 1938) was a Scottish explorer, Professor of Tibetan, Professor of Chemistry and Pathology, Indian Army surgeon ...

File:1903 Routes between Tibet and India by O'Connor.jpg, 1903 by William O'Connor File:Map of Tibet, Phari Dzong and Chumbi Valley, Tibet in 1963, from- India and Pakistan 1 250,000 Phari Dzong (cropped).jpg, 1955 by US

Army Map Service The Army Map Service (AMS) was the military cartographic agency of the United States Department of Defense from 1941 to 1968, subordinated to the United States Army Corps of Engineers. On September 1, 1968, the AMS was redesignated the U.S. Arm ...

File:1965 Relief map of Bhutan. 3-65. LOC 75695011 (cropped).tif, 1965 by US

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...

References and notes

;Notes ;Citations ;Bibliography *