In 1886 Tibetan troops built a fort at Lingtu, on the trade road a little below Jelep La and above the place where Zuluk now stands. The British, who regarded Sikkim as under their influence, saw the fort as an intrusion and demanded its withdrawal. When talks failed, an expedition was sent from Darjeeling in 1888.
British and Indian troops under Brigadier-General Thomas Graham marched up the old mule track through Rhenock and Rongli and took the Lingtu fort in March 1888. Later that year the Tibetans attacked again around Gnathang, the high valley above Zuluk, and were pushed back over Jelep La after fighting in the snow.
The campaign ended Tibetan control in the area and led to the Anglo-Chinese convention of 1890, which set the boundary between Sikkim and Tibet along the watershed. It also tightened British control over Sikkim itself.
Travellers on the Silk Route today pass through the same ground. At Gnathang, small memorials and a war cemetery recall the soldiers who died at this height, and the hairpin road above Zuluk follows much the same line that mule trains and soldiers once climbed on foot.
Sources
Legends are retold differently from village to village. Where a story is told locally rather than written down, we say so.
