At Tawang – Snow and Lakes – Musings of a Wandering Mind

May 25, 2007 —Categories: arunachal pradesh, himalayas, mountains, nature, north east, north-east india

At Tawang – Snow and Lakes

Travelling in the North-East in the summer of 2006
Guwahati >> Eaglenest >> Tawang >> Nameri >> Kaziranga >> Shillong >> Cherrapunjee
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When we headed towards the region above Tawang towards the country’s border, we were not sure what we are up to seeing. The road went up steep and within no time we had gone really high from Tawang. We had to pass several military barricades on the way, and we noticed that army had cut down a large number of alpine trees all over the slope. After 30 minutes of drive we started seeing snow which was melting fast, and plenty of water flowing down from each snow pile.

PTSO lake, Tawang

A little later, the road was getting flat again and the slopes had mellowed down. Thats when we saw our first surprise. I shouted when I looked at the beautiful lake amidst the snow – ‘look there..!’. We got down for a few photographs of the pretty lake and walked all around it. What I did not know was that there are many more to come. As we moved forward, we kept seeing lake after lake, each one surrounded by thick snow, and each one prettier than the previous. It all looked heavenly. I never imagined seeing so many beautiful water bodies in such a short distance.

PTSO lake, Tawang

There was no one around to tell, but from whatever I gathered from the signs, I think the region is called PTSO, whatever it stands for. We kept driving and stopping at short distances. We would hop into the jeep for a few minutes and then someone would shout a ‘look, one more..!’ and we would stop again and walk around another lake. It was evening when we headed back. On the slopes, the waterways created on the snow melting through the day had made some beautiful scaly patterns.

PTSO lake, Tawang

It was an incredible and short lived experience high in the mountains. The beautiful region was access controlled by the army and we have little freedom of movement. It depressed me to think of the neighbors that we have, who have forced our warriors to live in the harsh environs like this to protect our lands, be it in Siachin, Arunachal or Sikkim. It depressed me to think that such beautiful regions have to be restricted from us who worship the beauty that these mountains are. And C’est la vie is all I could say about it.

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Comments

Celine says:

May 25, 2007 at 4:08 am

Beautiful pictures that inspire awe and admiration for mountains!
Arun says:

May 27, 2007 at 10:59 am

Thanks Celine 🙂
Amit says:

May 29, 2007 at 8:05 pm

Arun –

PTSO stands for Paskang Teng Sho Outpost, or PSO Outpost. PSO is the name of the lake you saw. However, often the area around it is refered to as PTSO.

The lake is named after the Han Chinese princess who was married to a Tibetan chief during the Tong Dynasty. The story goes like this: during the Tong Dynasty China was having a hard time conquering Tibet. So the emperror offered one of his daughter to the Tibetan Chief so no one would lose face and everybody could be happy. Tibetan Chief had a new wife and gifts, the emperor could say I conquered Tibet and all Han Chinese now claim that they brought civilization to Tibet. 🙂

Do remember much of the area around NEFA was considered part of Tibet during the British occupation of India. TheMcMahon line later put it in India. During the 1962 war it was captured by China, though immediately ceded back to India.

The way a Chinese would pronounce it will be more like ‘Ping Chen (Paskang) Kong (Teng) Tsu (Sho)’ ( Princess Ping Chen). Teng is the Tibetan way of pronouncing and writing the Han Chinese last name Deng, as in Deng Xiaoping, or Teng Xiaoping.

Hope this helps.

-amit
Arun says:

May 30, 2007 at 4:29 am

Thank you Amit, this is indeed very useful information.

I have often wondered why Chinese retreated though they had little resistance from India army from Arunachal after their army despite having arrived as far as Tezpur. Any idea? I have asked this question to a few and no one seems to know.
Amit says:

May 30, 2007 at 6:50 pm

The answer is simple to state, but complex to explain. Basically, China retreated to the Line of Actual Control, as it had unilaterally established under Zhou Enlai’s time. (Worthy successor to Mao, IMO.)

Prior to the full British invasion of India, most of the area north of Delhi belonged to the Sikh Conferedacy (as the Brits called them; you and I can call that the Sikh Kingdom). The Sikh’s ruled Al of Punjab (which is now Haryana, Punjab and the Punjab in Pakistan) Jammu, Kashmir and Ladhak. The land to the east belonged to the Tibetan Kingdom, and stretched over Nepal, into the eastern sector, now called NEFA. The British took Punjab & J&K from the Sikh Confederacy in 1864.

The Johnson line, surveyd and established by the Brits, separating what was under British, Russian and Chinese control. It was established and demarkated the Aksai Chin area around 1865 to 1890. But it wasnt until 1913 that Britain invited Tibet and China to draw the official boundaries to the east of Tibet (the region now called NEFA). This is known as the Simla Agreement, and the surveys of the Tawang region were performed by a Mr. McMahon. The intension of the McMahon line was that everything south of the “highest ridges” would be part of British administered India, and that to the north would be part of Tibet. The Chinese refused to ratify this agreement. But the Brits went along and annointed it anyway.

Later, when Indian gained independence, Nehru claimed the Simla agreement as the last standard defining the Actual LOC in the Tawang region. However, when the Indians started actively patroling the McMahon line around 1950 they found out that the “highest ridges” lay often to the north of the Mcmahon line. Mr. McMahon had apparently made a mistake. But Nehru unilaterally decided that since the McMahon line was to have been drawn along the “highest ridges” separating Tibet with eastern Tibet, he was merely rectifying the actual LoC by pushing the McMahon line north!! (See how conveniently our school history books fail to mention this?!?!)

Then in 1954 Tibet fell to the Chinese. Following this the 1950 Sino-India accord was no longer honorable (to the Chinese) after Nehru let the Dalai Lama escape to and settle in India, in 1959. During this time China had started started to insist that the Line of Actual Control (LOAC) should be along the ‘traditional’ separation that had historically existed between Tibet and eastern Tibet. This traditional separation was along the highest ridges, because Tawang lay to the south of it, and east of Lhasa it was the center of trade for hundreds of years. (Interestingly, during the Simla accord of 1913 the Tibetans had always wanted Tawang to be part of Tibet due to this very reason. But the Brits kept it to themselves, while allowing Tibet to ‘administer Tawang’ until they left India. Had it not been for that, the entire NAFA region would have ended up being part of Tibet and therefore China, later on…)

Long story short… during the 1962 war Chinese incursion went south of the highest ridges, as well as the McMahon line. But China unilaterally declated an end to the war, as well as withdrew all the way back to the LOAC (as they still call it). Neville Maxwell’s excellent book India’s China War gives you more details on why they did so.

Strategically, he says that China had proven its point, and did not consider it prudent to get the UN and USA involved (as Nehru tried to do, in late Nov 1962). Some historians also say that Russian pressure on China was behind this since the US had already dispatched an aircraft carrier to the Bay of Bengal by Dec 1962. Maxwell maintains that claming the Aksai-Chin area was always more important to China since the roadway connecting western Tibet to Xinjiang province (NW of Tibet) had to pass through this region. It is the historical basis for Zhou Enlai offering India to cede control of Aksai-Chin to China while giving NEFA to India, which he had proposed to India in 1959/60. Note that control of Aksai-Chin would also be important to China in case of a falling out with Russia, as it would provide the Chinese a good road-link on their western frontier.

So, all in all, one could say that China withdrew from NEFA as part of its overall decision to not withdraw from Aksai-Chin. It got them everything they wanted – (a) on the west Aksai-Chin connecting Tibet to Xinjiang, (b) to the East Tibet separated from eastern Tibet, along the traditional line – highest ridges, and (c) they could unilaterally bring an end to the war without further escalation… aka US involvement in the war of 1962.

It is no simple statement when it is often claimed that Zhou Enlai was China’s, and perhaps one of the world’s, foremost diplomats. This was just one of the many little things he did to establish the China we know today. Mao was a communist Ideologue (much like our own Balasaheb T.); but Zhou was the real, strategic politician.

You may wonder, how do I know all this? I had a fantastic chance enounter, when one day I was bored and alone, and decided to go to the “coffee and doughnuts” social at the appartment complex I was living in at that time. I met a 96-years old gentleman; the last surviving airforce pilot who flew recon and fuel dumping missions over The Hump in NE India and Burma during World War II. After the war he became an analyst for the CIA, specializing in the greater NEFA region (NE India, Burma, Bhutan, Sikkim etc). May he rest in peace.

-amit
Arun says:

May 31, 2007 at 1:44 am

Amit, thank you for taking time to write this story. It is very interesting information that I had never known or heard anywhere else before. True, so many things that are not seen in our history books. And yes, I did wonder how did you gather all this information 🙂
racquel says:

May 31, 2007 at 3:42 am

The pictures are breathtaking 🙂 The view of the mountains and the lake is astonishing. And the crisp blanket of snow around it is a sight to see. Although the place is under military control, I think people should still see Tawang.
Pavankumar says:

January 21, 2009 at 11:28 am

Hi,
The pictures are awesome.I am planning to travel in the the period from May end -June 2nd week.Please suggest,Can I have the same experience or I hardly see snow.I am worried whether that is the right time to travel or not.Please advice.

Thanks,
Pavan
Arun says:

January 21, 2009 at 11:30 am

I vaguely recall being told that there is snow round the year around PTSO, but I am not sure. You should get a second opinion on this.
Pavankumar says:

February 23, 2009 at 1:40 pm

Hi,
Thanks for your reply.Can I know when did you visited Tawang and also the pic that you put is awesome.I reckon,it should be Sela Lake.Can I know,In which month,was that photo being taken so that that gives me a fare udea about snow in Tawang.

Thanks,
Pavan
Arun says:

February 23, 2009 at 2:36 pm

I was there in April-06. The waterbody in the picture in PTSO
India Travel Blog » In an Around Tawang says:

April 17, 2009 at 6:49 pm

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At Tawang – Snow and Lakes

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