Hot Springs, Chang Chenmo Valley


Hot Springs is the location of an Indian border checkpost operated by Indo-Tibetan Border Police in the Chang Chenmo River valley in Ladakh near the disputed border with China. It is so named because there is a hot spring at this location. The Line of Actual Control near Kongka Pass is only to the east.

Description

Historically, the name for the hot spring was Kyam. The Chinese still refer to it by this name. It is also associated with Gogra which is actually the location of a campsite at a river junction a short distance to the northwest.

History

In the late 1800s, the Maharaja Ranbir Singh at the request of the British made improvements to the trails and facilities of the Gogra campsite in order to improve trade with Yarkand. The valley was also a popular hunting spot for British officers on leave.
In Autumn 1959, the Kongka Pass incident occurred near here. At the time, the Central Reserve Police Force personnel were given the mandate of constructing this camp. During the construction, the scouting team was captured by the PLA who had advanced to Kongka Pass since the previous years. On 21 October, the search team tasked to find the missing scouts encountered the Chinese and were caught in a firefight that led to the death of 10 members. They have been since honored as martyrs by the law enforcement in India annually on this day. In the 1960s, a Police Memorial was erected here at Hot Springs.

Footnotes