Demchok, Ladakh

Demchok (, historical: "bDe-mChog"),
also called Parigas by China,
is a village and military encampment in the Demchok sector disputed between India and China. It is a part of wider Kashmir conflict between Pakistan, India and China. It is administered as part of the Nyoma tehsil in the Leh district of Ladakh by India, and claimed by China as part of the Tibet Autonomous Region.
The Line of Actual Control (LAC) passes along the southeast side of the village, along the Charding Nullah (also called Demchok River and Lhari stream) which joins the Indus River near the village. Across the stream, less than a kilometre away, is a Chinese-administered Demchok village, spelt Dêmqog in Tibetan pinyin.
History.
Demchok is a historic area of Ladakh, having been part of the kingdom from its inception in the 10th century. The description of the kingdom in the "Ladakh Chronicles" mentions Demchok Karpo, also called "Demchok Lhari Karpo" or "Lhari Karpo", as being part of the original kingdom. This is a possible reference to the rocky white peak behind the present-day Demchok village.
The Lhari peak is held sacred by Buddhists. Demchok (Sanskrit: ) is the name of a Buddhist Tantric deity, who is believed to reside on the Mount Kailas, and whose imagery parallels that of Shiva in Hinduism.
The Lhari peak is also referred to as "Chota Kailas" (mini Kailas) and attracts pilgrimage from Hindus as well as Buddhists.
Tibetologist Nirmal C. Sinha states that Demchok is part of the Hemis complex.
Ruined houses belonging to the Hemis monastery were noticed by Sven Hedin in 1907, and the monastery continues to own land in Demchok.
The stream that flows beside the Lhari peak, referred to as the Lhari stream in historical documents ("Charding Nullah" or "Demchok River" in modern times), was set as the boundary between Ladakh and Tibet at the end of the Tibet–Ladakh–Mughal War in the 17th century.
When Henry Strachey visited the area in 1847, he described Demchok as a "hamlet divided by a rivulet [the Lhari stream]", with settlements on both the sides of the stream. The stream was the prevailing border between Ladakh and Tibet.
A governor ("wazir-e-wazarat") of Ladakh visited the area in 1904–05 and found the Tibetan Demchok village housing 8 to 9 huts of zamindars (landholders) while the Ladakhi Demchok village had only two zamindars. The information was corroborated by Sven Hedin, who travelled through the area in the November 1907. According to the Indian government, the Ladakhi Demchok village was used for seasonal cutivation by nomadic farmers.
When independent India defined its borders in 1954, it set its border five miles southeast of Ladakhi Demchok. This would have made the Tibetan Demchok village a part of its territory. During the 1962 Sino-Indian War, the Chinese forces reclaimed the areas southeast of the Lhari stream. The Line of Actual Control resulting from the war runs along the Lhari stream.
Demographics.
Demchok had 31 households and a population of 78 according to the 2011 Census of India. The effective literacy rate is 42.47%. According to the sarpanch of Koyul–Demchok in 2019, the majority of the inhabitants are nomads (Changpa pastoralists). There is persistent talk of the nomads losing their customary grazing lands to Chinese occupation and their livelihoods being lost. The population is seen to be reducing as a result.
Geography.
Demchok is at an elevation of . It is at the end of a 5 kilometre-long stony plain at the foot of the Demchok Lhari Karpo peak.
The Charding Nullah (or Lhari stream) flowing down from Charding La waters the southeast side of Demchok, forming small plots of grazing and farming lands. Around the corner of the peak is a hot spring, whose water is believed to have medicinal qualities.
The Line of Actual Control (LAC) with Tibet runs on the southeast side of the village along the Charding Nullah and continues along the Indus River. Indian explorer Romesh Bhattacharji states that China regards the right bank of the Indus as the LAC,
leaving the left bank of Indus is under Indian control. The Chinese still retain a claim to the Indian part of the Demchok sector and object to any constructions there.
Along the left bank, numerous streams flow down from the ridge line to the left, providing grazing grounds and campsites to the Changpa nomads. The largest of these is the site of Lagankhel ("La Ganskyil"), which is historically regarded as a village with permanent settlement.
An old travel route from Ladakh to Tibet, leading to Kailas–Manasarowar, runs along the left bank of the Indus River. The route has been shut since the emergence of Sino-Indian border disputes. There have been persistent demands from the local population for reopening the route.
Sino-Indian disputes.
As of 2005, the route from Demchok to Lake Manasarovar in Tibet is closed and local trade with China is prohibited, although local residents admit that clandestine trade with China had been ongoing for decades.
In April 2016, the "Daily Excelsior" reported that local discontent over Chinese army objections near the border resulted in demands for resettlement from Demchok. Later in 2016, the Nubra constituency MLA Deldan Namgyal reported that the Chinese military suggested to the sarpanch of Demchok "to join China rather than [sit] with India" due to the infrastructural differences across the border. Demchok residents protested after the Indian Army refused permission for the local residents to construct irrigation canals to avoid a reaction from Chinese army.
In 2019, the sarpanch of Demchok said that residents of Demchok were moving to the town of Leh due to a lack of infrastructure and jobs.
Infrastructure.
There has been a traditional road between Fukche and Demchok running along the left bank of Indus. It connects Demchok to Koyul, Dungti and beyond, but the road is in poor condition. Attempts to improve the road in the past are said to have raised objections from China.
A new road from Chisumle in the Koyul Lungpa valley to Demchok was constructed by the Border Roads Organisation in 2017, via the Umling La pass () at a height of . It is billed as the "world's highest motorable road".
Demchok is on the list to receive mobile phone connectivity from Jio under the Universal Service Obligation Funding (USOF) programme.