The local story
A grazing ground that became a battlefield
Gnathang is a broad, grassy bowl in the high country between Zuluk and Kupup, on the old trade road from Kalimpong to Jelep La. For centuries it was summer grazing for yak herders, and a halt for mule trains climbing towards the pass. The 2011 census counted just 13 households and 60 people in Gnathang village, and in winter, when snow lies deep, it is even quieter.
In 1888 the valley became a battlefield. Tibetan troops had built a fort at Lingtu, inside what the British regarded as Sikkim, and in March 1888 a British force drove them out. On 22 May 1888 Tibetan forces attacked the British position at Gnathang and were driven back. Later that year the British pushed on over Jelep La. The Anglo-Chinese Convention of 1890 then fixed the Sikkim–Tibet border along the watershed. Memorials along this stretch of road, including in the Tukla valley nearby, recall the soldiers who died.
Gnathang's later story is the army's. After the border closed in 1962 the valley filled with camps, and the original shrine of Sepoy Harbhajan Singh, who died near Nathu La on 4 October 1968, stands as a bunker on this side of the ridge, now called the old Baba Mandir. Families in the village keep yaks, run a few homestays and look after the small monastery. In 2021 Gnathang became part of Sikkim's new Pakyong district.
