Tawang | |
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  Tawang Location in Arunachal Pradesh, India Show map of Arunachal Pradesh Tawang Tawang (India) Show map of India | |
| Coordinates:27°35′18″N91°51′55″E / 27.58833°N 91.86528°E /27.58833; 91.86528 | |
| Country |  India |
| State | Arunachal Pradesh |
| District | Tawang |
| Government | |
| • Type | Municipal Council |
| • Body | Tawang Municipal Council (AR) |
| Elevation | 3,048 m (10,000 ft) |
| Population (2011) | |
• Total | 11,202 |
| Time zone | UTC+5:30 (IST) |
| Vehicle registration | AR-03 |
| Website | tawang |
Tawang is atown and administrative headquarter ofTawang district in theIndianstate ofArunachal Pradesh.[1][2] It lies onNH-13 section ofTrans-Arunachal Highway. The town was once the headquarter of the Tawang Tract, which is now divided into theTawang district and theWest Kameng district. Tawang continues as the headquarters of the former. Tawang is the number onetourist destination of Arunachal Pradesh.
India occupied Tawang in 1951 and removed Tibetan administration from the area.[3][4] China continues to claim Tawang as its territory.[3] It is situated 448 km north-west of state capitalItanagar at an elevation of approximately 3,048 metres (10,000 ft). It lies to the north of theTawang Chu river valley, roughly 10 miles (16 km) south of theLine of Actual Control withChina. It is the site of a famousGelugpaBuddhist Monastery.
Tawang is inhabited by theMonpa people. The Tawang Monastery was founded by the Merak Lama Lodre Gyatso in 1681 in accordance with the wishes of the 5th Dalai Lama,Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso, and has a legend surrounding its name.Ta means "horse" andwang means "chosen". So, the wordTawang means "chosen by horse". As per legend, the monastery is believed to have been chosen by a horse owned by Mera Lama Lodre Gyatso.[6] The sixth Dalai Lama,Tsangyang Gyatso, was born in Tawang.
Tawang was historically under the control of Tibet. During the1914 Simla Conference, Tibet and British India signed an agreement delineating their common boundary in theAssam Himalaya region, which came to be known as theMcMahon Line. By this agreement, Tibet relinquished several hundred square miles of its territory, including Tawang, to the British. The agreement was not recognized by China.[7] According toTsering Shakya, the British records show that the Tibetans regarded the border agreed in 1914 as being conditional upon China accepting the Simla Convention. Since the British were unable to get China's acceptance, the Tibetans regarded the MacMahon line "invalid".[7][neutrality isdisputed]
The British did not implement the McMahon Line for over two decades, during which Tawang continued to be administered by Tibet. When the British botanistFrank Kingdon-Ward crossed theSela Pass and entered Tawang in 1935 without permission from Tibet, he was briefly arrested. The Tibetan government lodged a formal complaint against Britain.[8] This drew the attention of the British, who re-examined the Indo-Tibetan border, and attempted to revive the McMahon Line.[8] In November, the British government demanded that Tibet implement the border agreement. This met with resistance from the Tibetan government which implied that China's acceptance of the Simla Convention was a prerequisite to all such concerns.[9] Tibet refused to surrender Tawang, partly because of the importance attached to the Tawang Monastery.[citation needed] In 1938 the British made a move to assert sovereignty over Tawang by sending a small military column under Capt. G.S. Lightfoot to Tawang.[10] The invasion was met with strong resistance from the Tibetan government, a serious protest was lodged against the British Indian government.[citation needed]
After the outbreak of the war between China and Japan in 1941, the government ofAssam undertook a number of 'forward policy' measures to tighten their hold on the North East Frontier Agency (NEFA) area, which later becameArunachal Pradesh. In 1944 administrative control was extended over the area of the Tawang tract lying south of theSela Pass when J.P. Mills set up an Assam Rifles post atDirangDzong and sent the Tibetan tax-collectors packing. Tibetan protests were brushed aside. However, no steps were taken to evict Tibet from the area north of the pass which contained Tawang town.[11]
The situation continued after India's independence from Britain but underwent a decisive change in 1950 when Tibet lost its autonomy and wasannexed into the newly established People's Republic of China. In February 1951, India sent an official with a small escort and several hundred porters to Tawang and took control of the remainder of the Tawang tract from the Tibetans, removing the Tibetan administration.[12][a] The Indian efforts were warmly welcomed by the native population as a respite from an oppressive feudal regime. During theSino-Indian war of 1962, Tawang was briefly under Chinese control, but China voluntarily withdrew its troops at the end of the war, and Tawang returned to Indian administration. But China has not relinquished its claims on most ofArunachal Pradesh including Tawang.[14]
Tawang town is located approximately 555 kilometres (345 mi) fromGuwahati and 320 kilometres (200 mi) fromTezpur. Tawang has an average elevation of 2,669 metres (8,757 ft). Tawang, north ofSela Pass/Tunnel, is in the basin ofTawang Chu.
The climate is cold in Tawang. In winter, there is much less rainfall in Tawang than in summer. According to Köppen and Geiger, this climate is classified aswarm-summer humid continental climate (Dwb). The average temperature in Tawang is 5.5 °C or 41.9 °F The average annual rainfall is 3,080 millimetres (121 in).[15]
| Climate data for Tawang | |||||||||||||
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| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 3.6 (38.5) | 4.2 (39.6) | 6.0 (42.8) | 9.9 (49.8) | 13.1 (55.6) | 15.3 (59.5) | 15.5 (59.9) | 15.7 (60.3) | 14.7 (58.5) | 11.9 (53.4) | 8.2 (46.8) | 5.3 (41.5) | 10.3 (50.5) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | −2.4 (27.7) | −1.0 (30.2) | 1.6 (34.9) | 4.8 (40.6) | 8.0 (46.4) | 11.2 (52.2) | 12.1 (53.8) | 11.9 (53.4) | 10.5 (50.9) | 6.7 (44.1) | 2.8 (37.0) | −0.2 (31.6) | 5.5 (41.9) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | −8.8 (16.2) | −7.0 (19.4) | −3.4 (25.9) | −0.3 (31.5) | 3.0 (37.4) | 7.3 (45.1) | 9.3 (48.7) | 8.9 (48.0) | 6.6 (43.9) | 1.9 (35.4) | −2.0 (28.4) | −5.4 (22.3) | 0.8 (33.5) |
| Averageprecipitation mm (inches) | 56 (2.2) | 102 (4.0) | 195 (7.7) | 249 (9.8) | 331 (13.0) | 526 (20.7) | 643 (25.3) | 466 (18.3) | 305 (12.0) | 121 (4.8) | 45 (1.8) | 41 (1.6) | 3,080 (121.3) |
| Source:[15] | |||||||||||||
As of the 2011census, Tawang had a population of 11,202.[16]
Tawang Monastery was founded by the Mera Lama Lodre Gyatso in accordance to the wishes of the5th Dalai Lama, Nagwang Lobsang Gyatso. It belongs to theGelugpa sect and is the largestBuddhist monastery in India. The name Tawang (Tibetan:རྟ་དབང་,Wylie:Rta-dbang) means "horse chosen".[17] It is said to be the biggest Buddhist monastery in the world outside ofLhasa, Tibet.[18] It is a major holy site for Tibetan Buddhists as it was the birthplace of the sixth Dalai Lama.[19]
When the14th Dalai Lama fled from Tibet to escape from the Chinese army, he crossed into India on 30 March 1959 and spent some days at the Tawang Monastery before reachingTezpur inAssam on 18 April.[20] In 2007, the Dalai Lama acknowledged that both the Tibetan government and Britain recognized the McMahon Line in 1914.[19][21] He visited Tawang on 8 November 2009. About 30,000 people, including those from neighbouringNepal andBhutan, attended his religious discourse.[22]
Tawang Air Force Station has an already functionalheliport. TheIndian Airforce (IAF) has offered the upgraded ALG in Tawang for the operation of civil helicopter and flights for the tourism andUDAN scheme.[23]
The nearest functional civil airports with scheduled flights are theLokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport atGuwahati andSalonibari Airport atTezpur located at a distance of 450 and 325 kilometers, respectively.[24]
The nearest existing railway station is atNaharlagun, which is connected to major cities. A broad-gauge railway line connecting Missamari in Assam with Tawang has been proposed and a survey for the line was sanctioned in 2011.[citation needed]
The proposed 166 km long Bhalukpong–Tawang railway link from the existingBhalukpong railway station to Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh being undertaken as the national project will boost tourism and enhance the national security with faster movement of troops, it will pass through elevations of over 10,000 feet, 80% of the tracks will be through tunnels and the longest tunnel will be 29.48 km long.[25] This link will reduce the existing 285 km Bhalukpong-Tawang road distance by 119 km, and shorten the road distance. As well as the railway, a 2 lane road highway will also be developed along the rail line.[26] Once completed, further extension plans include a 100 km long western spur toYongphulla Airport (upgraded byIndia and jointly used by the Indian Army and Bhutan Army)[27] in eastern Bhutan via Yabab in India andTrashigang in Bhutan.
Located on the northernmost end ofNH 13 ofTrans-Arunachal Highway network, Tawang is 447.5 kilometres (278.1 mi) from state capitalItanagar and is connected with buses run byAPSRTC and private services.
Border Roads Organisation (BRO) was tasked in July 2020 to build the strategic road fromLumla west of Tawang in IndiaTrashigang in Bhutan throughSakteng Wildlife Sanctuary which will reduce Guwahati to Tawang by 150 km and enable rapid deployment of troops in eastern Bhutan and in Tawang sector ofIndia–China–Bhutan border.[28] This will be an upgrade of the existing Malo Road alongManas River (Dangme Chu River in Bhutanse) to National Highway standards, of this 40 km new winding road the 11 km Khitshang Road–Manlo Road stretch fromDuksum on Trashiyangtse–Tashigang Road to Bhutan-India border in the east as well Lumla in India to Bhutan-India border already exists, only 10 km of new road needs to be constructed and the rest will be an upgrade of the existing roads. There are proposals to build more roads to connect eastern Bhutan with western Tawang such as Trashigang–Namshu Road, theChorten Kora–Zemithang Road, road upgrade in Bhutan toSingye Dzong on Bhutan-China border, and an advance landing ground airstrip near Singye Dzong area along with more helipads in this area.
Sela Tunnel throughSela Pass is an under-construction road tunnel project to ensure all-weather connectivity betweenGuwahati inAssam andTawang inArunachal Pradesh state ofIndia. The tunnel gets its name from 4170 m (13,700 ft)Sela Pass which this tunnel will cut across and reduce the distance betweenDirang andTawang by 10 km. TheGovernment of India announced the funding for construction of all weather transport tunnel in 2018-19 budget.[29] Construction started in Jan/Feb 2019 and ends by December 2022.[30][31] The tunnel which is being constructed by theBorder Roads Organisation (BRO) will cut the travel time from theIndian Army'sIV Corps headquarter atTezpur to Tawang by at least 10 km or 1 hour, and it will also help make theNH13 an all-weather road to access Tawang which usually gets disconnected during winter.[30] Pass itself is located at 13,700 feet,[30] but the tunnel will pass through at the height of 10,000 feet. BRO is also improving the road fromSangestar Tso (north of Tawang) toBum La Pass on India–ChinaLine of Actual Control (disputed parts ofMcMahon Line).[30] The tenders for construction were floated in 2018, and Prime MinisterNarendra Modi laid the foundation stone in Feb 2019 to commence the construction.
Tawang receives snowfall every year during December–January.[32] There is also a ski lift in town. Tawang is the most famous tourist destination in Arunachal Pradesh. Visitors to Tawang, as is the case with the entire Arunachal Pradesh, require specialInner Line Permit (ILP) issued by the concerned government body and can be obtained from offices based inKolkata,Guwahati,Tezpur, andNew Delhi. Most of the travel from the plains is on a steep hill road journey, crossing Sela Pass at 4,176 metres (13,701 ft). Tourists can travel to Tawang fromTezpur,Assam by road and Tezpur has direct flights from Kolkata. In Oct 2014, a biweekly helicopter service from Guwahati was started by the Arunachal Pradesh government.
Other notable and worth visiting places include:Sela Pass, Bumla, Lumla, Shonga-tser (Madhuri) Lake, PTSO Lake, Zemithang.
Tawang travel guide from Wikivoyage| International | |
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