Nathu La is a mountain pass in the Himalayas in East Sikkim district. It connects the Indian state of SikKim with China’s Tibet Autonomous Region. Only citizens of India can visit the pass, and then only after obtaining a permit in Gangtok. It is one of the three open trading border posts between China and India.
About Nathu La in brief
Nathu La is a mountain pass in the Himalayas in East Sikkim district. It connects the Indian state of SikKim with China’s Tibet Autonomous Region. The pass, at 4,310 m above mean sea level, forms a part of an offshoot of the ancient Tea Horse Road. Only citizens of India can visit the pass, and then only after obtaining a permit in Gangtok. It is one of the three open trading border posts between China and India; the others are Shipkila in Himachal Pradesh and Lipulekh at the trisection point of Uttarakhand–India, Nepal and China. The current Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, used this pass to travel to India for the 2,500th birthday celebration of Gautama Buddha, which was held between November 1956 and February 1957. Nathu La played a vital role in the 1903–1904 British expedition to Tibet, which sought to prevent the Russian Empire from interfering in Tibetan affairs and thus gaining a foothold in the region. In December 1893, the Sikkimese monarchy and Tibetan rulers signed an agreement to increase trade between the two nations. The agreement culminated in 1894 when the trade pass was opened. It was sealed by India after the 1962 Sino-Indian War, but was re-opened in 2006 following numerous bilateral trade agreements.
The opening of the pass shortens the travel distance to important Hindu and Buddhist pilgrimage sites in the area. It also helps bolster the economy of the region by playing a key role in growing S Chinese-Indian trade. The Old Silk Route connects Lhasa in Tibet to the plains of Bengal to the south. In 1815, trade volume increased after the British annexed territories belonging to the SikKimese, Nepalese, and Bhutanese. In 1949, when the Tibetan government expelled the Chinese living there, most of the displaced Chinese returned home through the NathU La–Sikkim–Kolkata route. In 1975, NathuLa acceded to India and became part of the Indian territory. In 2003, Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s visit to China led to the opening of formal border talks. In 2004, the Indian Defence Minister’s visit led to the formal opening of the pass. In 2007, the pass was originally scheduled to be opened to China, but China refused to acknowledge the accession at that time.
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This page is based on the article Nathu La published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 15, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
