Tingmosgang
Encyclopedia
Tingmosgang is a town on the bank of Indus River
in Ladakh
, in northwestern India. It is 92 km west of Leh, near Khalatse
, and north of the present main road. The town has a palace and the monastery over a hillock.
Tingmosgang is also important from an historical point of view. After the death of the Fifth Dalai Lama, the Regent ruling Tibet sent the head of the Drukpa order here as an emissary and in 1684 the “Treaty of Tingmosgang” was signed between Ladakh and Tibet wherein the boundary between the two countries was demarcated as we find it today, besides other religious and trade agreements.
Geographically, the Indus Valley is the back-bone of Ladakh, historically from Upshi down to Khaltse, it is Ladakh's heartland. All the main places associated with Ladakh's dynastic history- Shey, Leh, Basgo and Tingmosgang- together with all the important gompas, outside Zanskar, are situated along this stretch of Indus.
Indus River
The Indus River is a major river which flows through Pakistan. It also has courses through China and India.Originating in the Tibetan plateau of western China in the vicinity of Lake Mansarovar in Tibet Autonomous Region, the river runs a course through the Ladakh district of Jammu and Kashmir and...
in Ladakh
Ladakh
Ladakh is a region of Jammu and Kashmir, the northernmost state of the Republic of India. It lies between the Kunlun mountain range in the north and the main Great Himalayas to the south, inhabited by people of Indo-Aryan and Tibetan descent...
, in northwestern India. It is 92 km west of Leh, near Khalatse
Khalatse
Khaltse or Khalsi is a village 337 km from Srinigar on the old main road to Leh, where it crossed the Indus over an iron bridge. The population for the region is about 1,600. Much of its importance is because it is the place where the road from Kashmir debouches into the Indus Valley...
, and north of the present main road. The town has a palace and the monastery over a hillock.
History
Tingmosgang was built by King Drag-pa-Bum as his capital in the 15th century. It is through his grandson Bhagan that Ladakh's second dynasty originated - Namgyals ( Victorious) which politically endured until the Dogra annexation in 1841 and whose lineage still lives on in the Stok Palace.Tingmosgang is also important from an historical point of view. After the death of the Fifth Dalai Lama, the Regent ruling Tibet sent the head of the Drukpa order here as an emissary and in 1684 the “Treaty of Tingmosgang” was signed between Ladakh and Tibet wherein the boundary between the two countries was demarcated as we find it today, besides other religious and trade agreements.
Geographically, the Indus Valley is the back-bone of Ladakh, historically from Upshi down to Khaltse, it is Ladakh's heartland. All the main places associated with Ladakh's dynastic history- Shey, Leh, Basgo and Tingmosgang- together with all the important gompas, outside Zanskar, are situated along this stretch of Indus.