India-China border: Tibetans at Pangong Tso race to help amid warnings military face-off could take ‘any trajectory’

Families of those who fled after Beijing sent troops into Tibet in 1950 are now helping New Delhi supply its forward bases in the icy heights of Ladakh

Soldiers from both sides are reportedly in eyeball-to-eyeball proximity as foreign ministers Wang Yi and S. Jaishankar are expected to meet in Moscow

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An Indian Air Force Hercules military transport plane prepares to land at an airbase in Leh, the joint capital of the union territory of Ladakh, on September 8. Photo: AFP

Published: 3:10pm, 10 Sep 2020Updated: 7:28pm, 10 Sep 2020

Nawang Dorjay and his family had been looking forward to the summer. The Tibetan Buddhists live in a campsite in Ladakh, where mountain passes mark India’s disputed border with China. Their home overlooks the serene, turquoise waters of the glacial Pangong Tso lake, and they run a cafe further north in Durbuk village – areas that would normally be frequented by hundreds of thousands of tourists at this time of year.

But the family of seven have not seen a single cent’s worth of business this year. To curb the spread of Covid-19, the administration of Prime Minister Narendra Modi instituted a complete lockdown in Ladakh from March 25 to the middle of June. Then, even as the country continued battling the deadly coronavirus, a confrontation between Indian and Chinese soldiers in May sparked a lengthy, unprecedented stand-off that this week escalated into the first exchange of fire along the border in 45 years.

Latest India-China border clash turns spotlight on Tibetan refugees in Special Frontier Force

Most of the tension has been concentrated on the northern banks of Pangong Tso, though there have also been flare-ups at the lake’s southern side, with Indian officials saying they have been countering China’s large military build-up in the area. At several points, hundreds of troops are reportedly now in eyeball-to-eyeball proximity.

New Delhi and Beijing this week accused each other of firing warning shots in the Mukhpari heights – northwest of Rezang La, a ridge close to Dorjay’s home in Chushul village – despite their long-standing agreement to avoid using firearms along the 3,488km Line of Actual Control (LAC), the undemarcated border that stretches from the icy heights of Ladakh to the forests of Arunachal Pradesh in the eastern Himalayas.

But instead of fretting about their losses, the 28-year-old and his family are working themselves into a different kind of frenzy.

Tibetan volunteers who live the villages around Pangong Tso lake make a supply run to Indian army forward posts. Photo: Nawang Dorjay

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