Tawang

Tawang belongs to the Monpa people and to the Tibetan Buddhist world. Its history as a town begins with Gaden Namgyal Lhatse, the monastery founded in 1680–81 by Merak Lama Lodre Gyatso in accordance with the wishes of the fifth Dalai Lama; the settlement grew on the slope below it, supplying and serving the monks. Just downhill at Urgelling, Tsangyang Gyatso, the sixth Dalai Lama, was born in 1683, and the district has been tied to Lhasa's religious life ever since.

For centuries the monastery collected taxes and administered the surrounding valleys, which traded salt, wool and grain across the passes. The McMahon Line, drawn at the Simla Convention of 1914, placed Tawang on the Indian side of the boundary between Tibet and British India, but Tibetan administration continued in practice until Indian forces took over the area in 1951. In 1959 the fourteenth Dalai Lama crossed into India through the Tawang district on his flight from Tibet, entering near Zemithang.

The 1962 war with China was fought partly here: Chinese troops advanced over the border and through the town before withdrawing, and the fighting at Nuranang and around the Sela Pass is remembered at memorials along the road and in the town. Arunachal Pradesh is administered by India; China does not recognise the state and claims the territory as South Tibet, and has pressed its claim to Tawang in particular, so the district remains sensitive and heavily garrisoned. Tawang district was split from West Kameng in 1989, and the town has grown since with roads, schools, army establishments and, in the last two decades, tourism.

The Monpa, who form most of the population, speak Tibeto-Burman languages and follow the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. Prayer flags run from ridge to ridge, water-driven prayer wheels turn beside streams, and chortens and mani walls mark the entrances to villages. Monastic life sets the rhythm of the year: the Torgya festival in January fills the monastery courtyard with masked cham dancing, Losar brings the new year in late winter, and Buddha Purnima is kept in May.

Monpa craft is well known across the Northeast. Households weave woollen shawls and carpets, make wooden bowls and masks, and produce handmade paper from the pulp of the local sukso tree; the cane and bamboo work of the valleys is traded down to Assam. Dress for festivals is based on the Tibetan chuba and the distinctive yak-hair hat with its hanging fringes, worn by both men and women.

Households keep yaks and the yak-cattle crosses used at these altitudes, grow maize, millet, barley and buckwheat on terraces, and pass the winter indoors around a stove. Hospitality is strong and formal: guests are offered butter tea and local brew, and visitors are expected to be quiet and respectful at religious sites. The army is a large presence in daily life, and the border is a constant background to conversation, though the town itself is calm and used to travellers.

Tawang town has only around ten thousand residents, and Tawang district as a whole counted about 50,000 people at the 2011 census, in the smallest district of Arunachal Pradesh by area. Life is concentrated in a few streets: the market, the taxi stand, government offices, schools and a hospital, with villages of stone and timber houses scattered on the slopes around.

The economy rests on four things: government employment, which is the largest single source of salaried work; the army and its supply chain; farming and herding, with maize, millet, potatoes and yak products; and tourism, which has grown quickly since the road improved and now supports hotels, homestays, drivers and guides. Hydro-power projects on the rivers are a significant and sometimes contested source of investment.

Days start early, as they do across the Northeast, because India keeps a single time zone and the sun rises well before six in summer; shops shut soon after dark. Winter closes the town in on itself, with snow, power cuts and slow roads. The recurring issues are road access, the cost of bringing everything up from Assam, the pull of Guwahati and Itanagar on young people seeking work and education, and the debate over how much hydro-power and how much tourism the valleys should take.

Tawang eats as the Tibetan plateau does. The staples are momo, steamed or fried dumplings filled with pork, beef, chicken or vegetables, and thukpa, a noodle soup with meat and greens that is the usual dinner in cold weather. Zan, a thick porridge of millet or maize flour stirred with vegetables or meat stock, is the old Monpa staple, and puta, buckwheat noodles, and khura, buckwheat pancakes, belong to the same tradition.

Dairy comes from yaks and their crosses. Churpi, hard dried cheese chewed for hours or softened into stews, is made in every village, and butter goes into suja, the salty butter tea that is offered to guests everywhere and takes some getting used to. Homes brew their own alcohol from millet, maize or rice, often served warm.

Vegetables are limited by altitude: potatoes, radish, beans, greens and fermented preparations carry the winter, along with dried and smoked meat hung above the kitchen stove. Chillies are used freely, as in the rest of the Northeast, and dried red chillies are strung outside houses. The market restaurants add north Indian and Chinese-style dishes for visitors and for the army and government staff posted here, and simple bakeries sell bread and biscuits that travel well on the mountain roads.