Depsang Plains

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

• IPA^(key): /dɛp.sɑŋ pleɪnz/, /-sæŋ-/

Depsang Plains

1. A gravelly plain in eastern Ladakh and the disputed Aksai Chin.
   • 1868 [1866 April 22], W. H. Johnson, “Report on his Journey to Ilchí, the Capital of Khotan, in Chinese Tartary.”, in The Journal of the Royal Geographic Society of London‎, volume XXXVII, London: John Murray, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 39:

     There is another route from Baltí Púlú to Sarsil from the Depsang Plains, but it is only used in summer, on account of the cold in these plains being very severe in winter.

   • 1876 [1874 September 27], J. Scully, “A Contribution to the Ornithology of Eastern Turkestan”, in Allan Hume, editor, Stray Feathers: A Journal of Ornithology for India and its Dependencies‎, volume IV, Calcutta: Calcutta Central Press, →OCLC, page 59:

     It seems to me that I entered the hills, from the Indian side, at Barakau on the 25th of June last; that I reached the ‘top’ on the Depsang plains on the 14th of this month; and that to-day I have emerged on the Central Asian side of the hills into the plains of Eastern Turkestan.

   • 1895, C. S. Cumberland, “Sporting Wanderings”, in Sport on the Pamirs and Turkistan Steppes‎, William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, page 18:

     The following day I crossed the Depsang plains, 17,000 feet above the level of the sea, and found myself again on the Shyok river, now a very shallow stream.

   • 1930, Owen Lattimore, “Suget and Karakoram”, in High Tartary‎, Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, →OCLC, page 345:

     The uplifted western rim of the plateau concealed all the world except a few ice-peaks that lifted above it. One of them was K2, the highest peak in the world bar Mount Everest, but from the Depsang Plains, which are sixteen or seventeen thousand feet, K2 and its companions looked strangely truncated.

   • 1964, Alastair Lamb, “The Aksai Chin Boundary in 1875”, in The China-India Border‎, Oxford University Press, →OCLC, page 77:

     Dr Thomson, who was the first Englishman to visit that pass—an 18,000-foot high obstacle astride one of the ancient routes between India and Central Asia—observed to its south-east what are now called the Depsang Plains, the extreme western edge of the desolate wasteland of the northern Tibetan plateau.

   • 1988, Peter Hillary, Rimo: Mountain on the Silk Road‎, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 83:

     I had to have one last look at the Depsang Plains before we left the next day. No one else seemed particularly enthused, so I set off alone up the long gradual slope behind our cricket pitch. Moving quickly I gained the lip of the plain in forty-five minutes and walked off across its remarkable horizontal surface. So strange a place was it that I felt I could be somewhere as remote and curious as on the moon.

   • [2013 May 3, Francis Elliott, Leo Lewis, “Beijing risks clash with India over a road to row of tents”, in The Times‎, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 26 July 2021:

     Reports that the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) was constructing a road towards the camp of five tents coincided with the breakdown without resolution of the third “flag meeting” between local commanders from both countries. The two sides are camped within 300 yards of one another in the Depsang plain, a mountainous plateau about 16,000ft above sea level.]

   • 2020 June 25, Ashok Sharma, Aijaz Hussain, “Indian army chief visits troops near troubled China border”, in AP News‎, archived from the original on 26 March 2023‎:

     The officials said Chinese troops had advanced in the Depsang Plains, also in Ladakh, in violation of border management and jointly agreed patrolling protocols between the two countries.
     Depsang is a strategically important area close to Daulat Beg Oldie, where India in recent years made an airstrip close to China operational.

   • 2022 March 15, Sudha Ramachandran, “No Breakthrough at 15th Round of China-India Talks”, in The Diplomat‎, archived from the original on 15 March 2022‎:

     Contrary to reports that reaching a settlement on disengagement at Hot Springs will be easy, this is proving to be a stumbling block. Former military officials say that it is an area that is important to both sides.
     “Low hanging fruit? The geography of the area makes it as important as Depsang Plains, if not more. Recall in 1959 the first clash took place here!” Harcharanjit Singh Panag, a retired lieutenant general in the Indian Army tweeted.

   • 2022 September 9, Sameer Yasir, “2 Years After Deadly Fistfights, India and China Pull Back From Border”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 09 September 2022, Asia Pacific‎:

     Among the remaining contention points between the two armies is an eastern region called the Depsang Plains. Military analysts said that the Chinese Army was not allowing Indian troops to patrol in that area, even though they have done so for decades. While India’s military is already stretched thin, said Saurav Jha, editor in chief of the Delhi Defense Review, it still needs to keep up a permanent patrol to deter China.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:Depsang Plains.