Sino-Sikh War
| Sino-Sikh war | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 General Zorawar Singh (1786-1841) |
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
.png){kind=small} Qing dynasty
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 Sikh Empire
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
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Meng Bao Haipu |
Zorawar Singh Kahluria † | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
| Unknown | Unknown | ||||||||
| Sino-Sikh War | |||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 森巴戰爭 | ||||||
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| Simplified Chinese | 森巴战争 | ||||||
| Literal meaning | Dogra War | ||||||
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| Transcriptions | |
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| Standard Mandarin | |
| Hanyu Pinyin | Sēnbā Zhànzhēng |
The Sino-Sikh War (also referred to as the Invasion of Tibet or the Dogra War) was fought from May 1841 to August 1842, between the forces of Qing China and the Sikh Empire after General Zorawar Singh Kahluria invaded western Tibet. At the time of the war, the Dogra dynasty was a vassal of the Sikh Empire, and so the conflict is also known as the Dogra War. The Sikh army was routed and the Qing counterattacked but were defeated in Ladakh resulting in an overall military stalemate. The Treaty of Chushul was signed in 1842 maintaining the status quo ante bellum.
From the early 18th century, the Manchu-led Qing dynasty had consolidated its control of Tibet after defeating the Dzungar Khanate. From then until late into the 19th century, the Qing rule of the region remained unchallenged. South of the Himalayas, Ranjit Singh established his empire in the Punjab region in 1799.
In 1808, Ranjit Singh conquered Jammu, which was under control of the Hindu Rajput Dogra dynasty from Dougar Desh in Jammu and incorporated them into his empire as vassals.
Historians continue to debate the reasons for the invasion; some say control of Tibet would have given Gulab Singh a monopoly on the lucrative pashmina wool trade of Tibet, others believe that he aimed to establish a land bridge between Ladakh and Nepal to create a Sikh-Gorkha alliance against the British. However, Zorawar Singh Kahluria was only conquering lands which were distinctly foreign areas which had a rich indigenous Indian civilization to the marauding Tibetans from the East. According to Rolf Alfred Stein, author of Tibetan Civilization, the area of Shang Shung comprising the area conquered by Zorawar Singh Kahluria was not historically a part of Tibet and was a distinctly foreign territory to the Tibetans. According to Rolf Alfred Stein, “…Then further west, The Tibetans encountered a distinctly foreign nation. - Shangshung, with its capital at Khyunglung. Mt. Kailāśa (Tise ) and Lake Manasarovar formed part of this country., whose language has come down to us through early documents. Though still unidentified, it seems to be Indo European. …Geographically the country was certainly open to India, both through Nepal and by way of Kashmir and Ladakh. Kailāśa is a holy place for the Indians, who make pilgrimages to it. No one knows how long they have done so, but the cult may well go back to the times when Shangshung was still independent of Tibet. How far Shangshung stretched to the north , east and west is a mystery…. We have already had an occasion to remark that Shangshung, embracing Kailāśa sacred Mount of the Hindus, may once have had a religion largely borrowed from Hinduism. The situation may even have lasted for quite a long time. In fact, about 950, the Hindu King of Kabul had a statue of Vişņu, of the Kashmiri type (with three heads), which he claimed had been given him by the king of the Bhota (Tibetans) who, in turn had obtained it from Kailāśa.”
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Wikipedia