Gar and Sengge Zangbo valleys, with Tashigang at their confluence; Demchok is further down the Indus Valley (which is a continuation of the Gar Valley).
Right in front of us the monastery Tashi-gang gradually grows larger. Its walls are erected on the top of an isolated rock of solid porphyrite, which crops up from the bottom of the Indus valley like an island drawn out from north to south. ... on the short side stand two round free-standing towers, ... The whole is surrounded by a moat 10 feet deep...[13]
Tashigang was described by European travellers in the 18th and 19th centuries as the first Tibetan village, as they travelled from Ladakh towards Kailas–Manasarovar.[8]
It was at a distance of a day's march from Demchok, which was regarded as the Ladakh–Tibet border since the 17th-century Treaty of Tingmosgang between the two nations.[14]
History
Gar and Sengge Zangbo valleys mapped by Henry Strachey, 1851
Early medieval period
During the Tibetan Era of Fragmentation, Kyide Nyimagon, a descendant of emperor Langdarma escaped to Western Tibet (then called Ngari or Ngari Khorsum) and established a small kingdom at Rala in the Sengge Zangbo valley close to Tashigang. He built a red fort (Kharmar).[b][18] (See Strachey's map for Rala.) Subsequently, Nyimagon expanded his kingdom to the entire Ngari. After his death, the kingdom was divided among his three sons, the eldest son receiving Maryul (Ladakh and Rudok), the second son receiving Guge-Purang and the third son Zanskar (in western Ladakh). According to the current interpretations of the sources, Ladakh's southern border was at Demchok Karpo, a stony white peak beside the Ladakhi village of Demchok.[19] This would lead to the conclusion that Tashigang and the original Kharmar fort were part of Guge.
Medieval period
A monastery was founded at Tashigang by the New Tantra Tradition school of Rinchen Zangpo during the 10th–11th centuries.[20] During the 13th–14th centuries, it was converted into a Kagyu monastery, along with several others in western Guge. Karl Ryavec suggests that this may have happened due to some political decline in the kingdom.[21]
Ladakhi ruler Sengge Namgyal (r. 1616–1642) conquered and annexed Guge in 1630.[22] He is credited with building a new monastery at Tashigang.[23]
It was a Drukpa monastery associated with Taktsang Repa.[24][25]
During the reign of Sengge Namgyal's successor, Deldan Namgyal, Ladakh faced an invasion from Central Tibet under the Fifth Dalai Lama, who was at that time being assisted by the Mongol army. The forces defeated the Ladakhis in Guge, key battles being fought near Rala, and then invaded Ladakh itself.[26] After three years of siege, the Ladakhis requested the help of Kashmiris (under Mughal empire), who drove them out of Ladakh. The retreating troops fled to Tashigang where they ensconced themselves in its fort.[27]
Twenty five Mongol military officers are said to have settled in Tashigang. In 1715, the Jesuit missionary Ippolito Desideri found the region garrisoned by a body of "Tartar" (Mongol) and Tibetan troops, headed by a "Tartar prince". Even today, their descendants are called sog dmag ("the twenty-five Mongol Warriors"). The Drukpa monastery of Tashigang was converted to the Gelugpa order.[24][28]
Modern period
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (July 2022)
Demographics
In 2013, Zhaxigang Village consisted of 111 households with a total of 332 people.[29]
Notes
^Alternative spellings include Trashigang,[2]Tashikang,[3]Tashigong[4][5]
and Tashegong.[6]
Older spellings were "Tushigung" (also "Chang Tushigung"),[1] "Trescy-Khang", and "Tuzhzheegong".[7][8]
^
Strachey, Capt. H. (1853). "Physical Geography of Western Tibet". The Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, Volume 23. Royal Geographical Society (Great Britain). pp. 1–68.
^ abFisher, Rose & Huttenback, Himalayan Battleground (1963), pp. 105–106: "The earliest of these was the account by an Italian Jesuit, Ippolito Desideri, who traveled this route in 1716 and who described "Trescy-Khang" (Tashigong) as a "town on the frontier between Second and Third Tibet [i.e., between Ladakh and Tibet]". In 1820, J. B. Fraser published an itinerary of this same route which indicated that "Donzog [Demchok], thus far in Ludhak" was reached on the eleventh stage and on the following day "Tuzhzheegong (a Chinese fort)."
^Emmer, the Tibet-Ladakh-Mughal War (2007), pp. 99–100: "The frontier with Tibet was fixed at the Lha ri stream at Bde mchog (Demchok), approximately at that place where it is even today."
^Handa, Buddhist Western Himalaya (2001): "During the reign of Senge Namgyel and his successor, Deldan Namgyel,... the Mahasiddha [Taktsang Repa] got many monasteries built. Magnificent monasteries were built at Hemis, Theg-mchog (Chemrey), Anle [Hanle] and Tashigong."
Ahmad, Zahiruddin (July 1960), "The Ancient Frontier of Ladakh", The World Today, 16 (7): 313–318, JSTOR40393242
Ahmad, Zahiruddin (September–December 1968), "New Light on the Tibet-Ladakh-Mughal War of 1679–84", East and West, 18 (3/4), Istituto Italiano per l'Africa e l'Oriente (IsIAO): 340–361, JSTOR29755343
Jinpa, Nawang (Autumn 2015), "Why Did Tibet and Ladakh Clash in the 17th Century?: Rethinking the Background to the 'Mongol War' in Ngari (1679-1684)", The Tibet Journal, 40 (2): 113–150, JSTOR/tibetjournal.40.2.113
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