Tsosib Sumkyil () or Churup Sumkhel () is the westernmost township of the

Zanda County 13-06-2025 Zanda County or Tsamda County (, zh, s=札达县) is a county in the Ngari Prefecture to the extreme west of the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. Its seat of power is at Tholing, the former capital of the Guge kingdom. Zanda is said ...

in the

Ngari Prefecture Ngari Prefecture () or Ali Prefecture ( zh, s=阿里地区 , t=阿里地區 , p=Ālǐ Dìqū) is a prefecture of China's Tibet Autonomous Region covering Western Tibet, whose traditional name is Ngari Khorsum. Its administrative centre and large ...

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...

region of China. It borders India's

Spiti Spiti (pronounced as piti in Bhoti language) is a high-altitude region of the Himalayas, located in the north-eastern part of the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. The name "Spiti" means "The middle land", i.e. the land between Tib ...

region in

Himachal Pradesh Himachal Pradesh (; Sanskrit: ''himācāl prādes;'' "Snow-laden Mountain Province") is a States and union territories of India, state in the northern part of India. Situated in the Western Himalayas, it is one of the thirteen Indian Himalayan ...

as well as Rupshu region in

Ladakh Ladakh () is a region administered by India as a union territory and constitutes an eastern portion of the larger Kashmir region that has been the subject of a Kashmir#Kashmir dispute, dispute between India and Pakistan since 1947 and India an ...

. The region is watered by the Pare Chu river, a tributary of the

Spiti River Spiti (pronounced as piti in Bhoti language) is a high-altitude region of the Himalayas, located in the north-eastern part of the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. The name "Spiti" means "The middle land", i.e. the land between Tib ...

and an upstream tributary of the

Sutlej The Sutlej River or the Satluj River is a major river in Asia, flowing through China, India and Pakistan, and is the longest of the five major rivers of the Punjab region. It is also known as ''Satadru''; and is the easternmost tributary of t ...

river. China has ongoing border disputes with India for the southwestern border of the region near Kaurik and the northern border near Chumar.

Name

The township is named after two villages, both of which appear to have two native names. Tsosib (, also spelt ''Tsosip'', ''Cosib'' and ''Cosip'') or Churup (, also spelt Tsurup) is a border village on the bank of Pare Chu just before the river enters the Indian

district (). Sumkyil or Sumkhel ( or , also spelt ''Sumkyi'', ''Sumgyi'', Somgyi and ''Sonjie'') is a farming village on a tributary of Pare Chu called Sumkyil Chu. (). The Sumkyil Chu stream flows through a wide enough valley to support several farming villages along its course, including Manja (), Tuntun () and Azire (). The reference to Sumkyil in the name of the township could also to the entire Sumkyil valley. The historical name of the region was Tsotso, or Tocho.

Geography

The region of the Tsosib Sumkyil Township is entirely mountainous, with the western parts belonging to the

Zanskar Range The Zanskar Range is a mountain range in the union territory of Ladakh that separates the Zanskar valley from Indus valley at Leh. The range lies between and runs parallel to the Great Himalayas to the southwest and the Ladakh Range to the nort ...

and the eastern parts belonging to the

Ladakh Range The Ladakh Range is a mountain range in central Ladakh in India with its northern tip extending into Baltistan in Pakistan. It lies between the Indus and Shyok river valleys, stretching to 230 miles (370 km). Leh, the capital city of Lada ...

. The Pare Chu river flows between the two, entering the region from Rupshu in the north. Several tributaries drain into the river from both the sides, with the Sumkyil Chu being one of the last. The Sumkyil Chu valley is well-populated with several farming villages dotting the valley. After the junction with Sumkyil Chu, the Pare Chu river flows southwest and enters Indian territory between Tsosib and Kaurik.

History

A part of the township used to be part of

, which was in turn part of the

Zanskar Zanskar, Zahar (locally) or Zangskar, is the southwestern region of Kargil district in the Indian union territory of Ladakh. The administrative centre of Zanskar is Padum. Zanskar, together with the rest of Ladakh, was briefly a part of the kin ...

and

kingdoms till the early 18th century. During the border talks between China and India in 1960, the Indian delegates presented evidence of the region being under Ladakhi control during the reign of Nyima Namgyal (). Mentioned in the records were the villages of Kaurik, Gue (Gyu), Shaktot, Tsurup, Sumkyil, Kharak and Bargyok (Berchok). The region appears to have become part of Tibet sometime before Ladakh came under the control of

Dogras The Dogras, or Dogra people, are an Indo-Aryan ethno-linguistic group living primarily in the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. They speak their native Dogri language. They live predominantly in the Duggar region of the Jammu Div ...

. In 1847, when the British boundary commissioners were sent to the region, they found the boundary of Spiti to lie between Kaurik and Tsurup.

Notes

References

Bibliography