Gelensiniak, or ''Geling Sinyik'', is a village in the Limeking Circle of the

Upper Subansiri district Upper Subansiri (Pron:/su:bənˈsɪɹi/) is an administrative district in the state of Arunachal Pradesh in India. History The district was formed when Subansiri district was bifurcated into Upper and Lower Subansiri districts in 1980. Geograp ...

Arunachal Pradesh Arunachal Pradesh (; ) is a States and union territories of India, state in northeast India. It was formed from the North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) region, and India declared it as a state on 20 February 1987. Itanagar is its capital and la ...

, India, close to the region's border with Tibet. The Gelen Vinayak Bhat
Despite Modi-Xi bonhomie, China moves into Arunachal Pradesh, builds new road and barracks
The Print, 22 June 2018. Uses the full form Gelen Bung. or Gelling river (called Tsari Chu in Tibet) flows down from

Migyitun Migyitun (), also called Tsari () or Zhari (), is a town in the Lhöntse County of Tibet's Shannan Prefecture. It is on the banks of the Tsari Chu river close to the McMahon Line, the ''de facto'' border with India's Arunachal Pradesh. It i ...

and Longju and joins the

Subansiri River The Subansiri (Chayul Chu in Tibet) is a trans- Himalayan river and a tributary of the Brahmaputra River that flows through Tibet's Lhuntse County in the Shannan Prefecture in Southwestern China, and the Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh and A ...

here. Gelensiniak is strategically located between Longju, Taksing and

Limeking Limeking is a village and the headquarters of an eponymous Circle in the Upper Subansiri district in Arunachal Pradesh, India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and depe ...

. The region is populated by the Mara clan of

Tagin people The Tagins are one of the major tribes of Arunachal Pradesh, India, a member of the larger designation of Tani Tribes. The Tagins refers to a tribe of Northeast India Region. The Tagins are members of the larger designation of Abotani (''abo'' ...

. Behind Gelensiniak, on a vertical cliff top is a flat area known as Tame Chung Chung ("place of snakes", abbreviated TCC), which hosts military camps for Indian border troops. Until road access to the Tame Chung Chung was built by the

Border Roads Organisation The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) is a statutory body under the ownership of the Ministry of Defence of the Government of India. BRO develops and maintains road networks in India's border areas and friendly neighboring countries. This include ...

in 2018, the camps were supplied only by helicopters.Satellite image of the road to Tame Chung Chung
EO Browser, 28 May 2020. Distance of India-China Border Road constructed in 2018 from Gelensiniak (Tama Chung Chung) to Taksing is 80 km.BRO creates history through road link to China border
Business Standard, 2018.

Name

The name "Geling Sinyik" evidently denotes the confluence of the two rivers: ''Geling'', i.e., the Tsari Chu river, and ''Sinik'', i.e., the

History

Tsari pilgrimage

Gelensiniak lies on the route of the 12-yearly Tsari pilgrimage of the Tibetans around the

Dakpa Sheri Dakpa Sheri (, ), explained as "Pure Crystal Mountain" and also known as Tsari (), is a mountain in the eponymously named Tsari region in Lhöntse County of Tibet's Shannan Prefecture. The mountain is considered sacred for Tibetans and the pilgr ...

mountain. The pilgrimage went down the Tsari Chu valley up to Gelensiniak and returned via the Subansiri valley, back into the Tibetan territory. The last Tsari pilgrimage was conducted in 1956, after which the Sino-Indian border conflict put a stop to the relations between the two regions.

Sino-Indian border conflict

After the

1959 Tibetan uprising The 1959 Tibetan uprising or Lhasa uprising began on 10 March 1959 as a series of protests in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, fueled by fears that the Chinese government planned to arrest the Dalai Lama. Over the next ten days, the demonstratio ...

, Chinese troops arrived in Tibet in large numbers and started militarising the border. The Indian border post at Longju, near

, was attacked and driven out. India withdrew the border post to Maja. At the beginning of 1962, the Chinese activity along the border increased again. On 23 October, the

war War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organi ...

began with the Chinese troops attacking with superior force. The Asaphila post, manned by

Jammu and Kashmir Rifles The Jammu and Kashmir Rifles is an infantry regiment of the Indian Army. Its origins lay in the Jammu and Kashmir State Forces of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir. After the accession of the state to the Indian Union in October 1947, ...

, lost one JCO and 17 other ranks. After this, all the Indian border posts were ordered to withdraw to Taliha. It is believed that the Chinese would have occupied all the vacated posts. On 16 November, two thousand Chinese troops were found in the Gelensiniak area equipped with heavy weaponry. After the war, the Chinese withdrew to their previous positions, except that they retained possession of the Longju area in the Tsari Chu valley.

Notes

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * {{citation , first1=P.B. , last1=Sinha , first2=A.A. , last2=Athale , first3=S. N. , last3=Prasad , title=History of the Conflict with China, 1962 , publisher=History Division, Ministry of Defence, Government of India , year=1992 , url=http://www.php.isn.ethz.ch/lory1.ethz.ch/collections/coll_india/documents/WarWithChina_1962_000.pdf , ref={{sfnref, Sinha & Athale, History of the Conflict with China, 1992 Villages in Upper Subansiri district Borders of Arunachal Pradesh