Xiayadong Township (simplified Chinese: 下亚东乡; traditional Chinese: 下亞東鄉; pinyin: Xiàyàdōng Xiāng; lit. 'Lower Yadong'), known in TibetanasDromo Mechü (Tibetan: གྲོ་མོ་སྨད་ཆུས, Wylie: gro-mo smad-chus) is a township in the Chumbi ValleyinYadong County, Shigatse, in the Tibet Autonomous RegionofChina.[2] Much of the township's area comprises disputed territory: the township spans an area of 204.7 square kilometres (79.0 sq mi), excluding disputed territory,[3] and 650.88 square kilometres (251.31 sq mi) including it.[1] Xiayadong Township's population totaled 897 as of 2018.[1]
The township's center is the villageofRinchengang, on the bank of the Amo Chu valley, which also receives the track from Sikkim's Jelep La pass. In addition to Rinchengang, the township also includes the Geling, Chema and Pipitang villages upstream along the Amo Chu, and Assam-Rotsa (or Asamthang) downstream.[4]
In addition, the Township includes large territories in Bhutan that China claims. These include the Doklam region, Lulin and Charitang. These claims however do not find historical support in the testimony of British Indian officials.[b]
^The borders are marked by contributors to OpenStreetMap. They may not be fully accurate.
^According to John Claude White, the British Political Officer in Sikkim in early 20th century, the border between Tibet and Bhutan was somewhere between the Langmarpo and Charitang rivers.[5]
Orientalist L. Austine Waddell also shows the border between Tibet and Bhutan running from the Mount Gipmochi, via Sinchela, to the Charitang river. (Charitang is incorrectly labelled as Langmarpo.)[6]
^White 1909, p. 112: "Over the Kyanka [Charitang river] there was a good new bridge, which we crossed, and passed under a cave, or rather two overhanging rocks, named Tak-phu, which were pointed out as being in Bhutanese territory."
^White 1909, p. 112: "but I found the map was wrong, and that the stream marked Langmarpu-chhu is really the Kyanka, a second stream which we had already crossed higher up being the Langmarpu-chhu."
