Battle of Chushul

01Ladakh after Zorawar

Zorawar Singh’s march on western Tibet ended in the snow at To-yo, where he was killed and his army broken in the winter of 1841. The Tibetans followed up into Ladakh, laid siege to the Dogra posts and found support among Ladakhis who wanted the old royal house back. Gulab Singh of Jammu sent a relief army under Dewan Hari Chand and Wazir Ratnu over the passes in the summer of 1842.

02The fight and the treaty

The Dogras drove the Tibetans back to their entrenched camp near Chushul, close to the Pangong lake. By damming a stream they flooded the position, and the Tibetans were forced out and beaten in the open in early September. Their commanders were taken. On 17 September 1842 the Treaty of Chushul was signed: each side kept to the frontier as it had stood before the war, and the trade between Ladakh and Lhasa was to go on as of old.

Dynasty · 1799–1849 CEThe Sikh Empire (Sarkar-i-Khalsa)Ranjit Singh took Lahore in 1799 and was proclaimed Maharaja of the Punjab in 1801. He united the Sikh misls into one state, pushed the Afghans back beyond the Khyber, and built the last great Indian army to face the British; ten years after his death the empire was annexed in 1849.Read →