Chulichan

Coordinates: 34°39′48″N 76°18′54″E / 34.663323°N 76.315108°E / 34.663323; 76.315108
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Chulichan
village
Chulichan is located in Ladakh
Chulichan
Chulichan
Location in Ladakh, India
Chulichan is located in India
Chulichan
Chulichan
Chulichan (India)
Coordinates: 34°39′48″N 76°18′54″E / 34.663323°N 76.315108°E / 34.663323; 76.315108
CountryIndia
Union TerritoryLadakh
DistrictKargil
TehsilKargil
Area
 • Total1.2590 km2 (0.4861 sq mi)
Population
 (2011)
 • Total912
 • Density720/km2 (1,900/sq mi)
Languages
 • OfficialBrokskat
Time zoneUTC+5:30 (IST)
PIN
194103

Chulichan[a] is a village in the Kargil district of Ladakh, India, close to the Line of Control with Pakistan-administered Kashmir. It is populated by Shia Brokpas and Baltis.

Geography[edit]

Chulichan is on the left bank of the Indus River in a narrow section of Indus valley known as Brog Yul. It is the last village in Indian-administered Ladakh; the next village on the left bank, Natsara, is in Pakistan-administered Baltistan. Chulichan has an area of 125.90 hectares (1.2590 km2) and includes five hamlets: Groung Khril, Groung Stod-I, Groung Stod-II, Sharchey and Grongjuk.[3][4]

History[edit]

Historically, Chulichan and the adjacent regions were populated by Brokpa people. Folklore maintains that they arrived at their current habitat from the Gilgit region.[5] The Brokpa chieftains wielded autonomy in the region, pledging nominal allegiance to the Maqpon rulers of Skardu.[5]

However, things changed in the seventeenth century when Jamyang Namgyal of Ladakh had a conflict with Ali Sher Khan Anchan of Skardu and had to accept Gurgurdho, a hamlet on the opposite bank of the Indus river, as a boundary between their territories.[5] Consequently, Chulichan and villages to the north of it, such as Ganokh and Marol, became part of Baltistan and influenced by Shia Islam.[5] When Robert Barkley Shaw visited the village in 1876, he found Baltis and Brokpas living there, professing Shia Islam.[6]

Nevertheless, the local Brokpas continued to maintain marital relations with their ethnic kin in the Dah Hanu region of Ladakh; such connections would cease only with the latter's acceptance of Buddhism c. late nineteenth century.[5] In the aftermath of the First Kashmir War (1947–1948), with Pakistan annexing territories north of Chulichan, it became the only Brokpa village in India to be primarily composed of Muslims.

Demographics[edit]

According to the latest census of India (2011), the village has 912 inhabitants across 112 households.[3]

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Alternative spellings: Chulichang[1] and Chulichen.[2]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Kashmir & Jammu mapsheet 52-b, Survey of India, 1928.
  2. ^ Bhan 2013, p. 31.
  3. ^ a b "Directorate of Census Operations, 2011" (PDF). p. 56.
  4. ^ "Hamlet wise village detail". DISTRICT Statistics & Evaluation office Kargil, Ladakh.
  5. ^ a b c d e Vohra, Rohit (1982). "Ethnographic Notes on the Buddhist Dards of Ladakh: The Brog-Pā". Zeitschrift für Ethnologie. 107 (1): 72, 81–82. ISSN 0044-2666.
  6. ^ Shaw, R. B. (1878). Stray Arians in Tibet. The village of Ganok is entirely inhabited by Musalman Brokpas, while those of Dangel, Marul, Chuli-chan, and singkarmo, are inhabited partly by Musalmun (Shi'ah) Brokpas, and partly by Baltis (Tibetan Musalmans) of the same sect.
Sources