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(Redirected from Aktagh) Historic village and campground in Xinjiang, People's Republic of China
Shahidulla شەيدۇللا‎Xaidulla, Saitula
Historic village and campground
Etymology: witness or martyr of Allah
Nickname: Sanshili Yingfang
Shahidulla is located in Southern XinjiangShahidullaShahidulla
Coordinates: 36°24′50″N 77°59′15″E / 36.4140°N 77.9875°E / 36.4140; 77.9875
Country People's Republic of China
Autonomous RegionXinjiang
PrefectureHotan
CountyPishan/Guma
Elevation3,646 m (11,962 ft)
Shahidulla
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese賽圖拉
Simplified Chinese赛图拉
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinSàitúlā
Wade–GilesSai-t'u-la
Alternative Chinese name
Traditional Chinese三十里營房
Simplified Chinese三十里营房
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinSānshílǐ Yíngfáng
Uyghur name
Uyghurشەيدۇللا‎
Transcriptions
Latin YëziqiShahidulla
Siril YëziqiШаһидулла

Shahidulla, also spelt Xaidulla from Mandarin Chinese, (altitude ca. 3,646 m or 11,962 ft), was a nomad camping ground and historical caravan halting place in the Karakash River valley, close to Khotan, in the southwestern part of Xinjiang Autonomous Region, China. The site contains the ruins of a historical fort which was demolished by the Chinese administration of Xinjiang between 1890 and 1892. The site lies next to the Chinese National Highway G219 between Kashgar and Tibet, 25 km east of Mazar and 115 km west of Dahongliutan.

The modern town of Saitula is located next to the old fort of Suget Karaul built by the Chinese administration about 10 km (30 "Chinese miles") southeast of the original site. A modern People's Liberation Army barracks named Sanshili Yingfang or Sanshili Barracks (lit. '30 li barracks') is also located here. This name is a more common name used by motorists along the G219 highway.

Etymology

The Uyghur name Shahidulla simply means "witness of Allah" or "martyr of Allah" depending on the interpretation of the heteronym "shahid".

During the 1800s, the place was a sepulcher or shrine for a person known as Shahidulla Khoja, or Shahid Ullah Khajeh. He was said to be a Khoja from Yarkand who was killed by "his Khitay pursuers" during the 1700s Qing conquest of Xinjiang. His real name was lost. At the time local Kirghiz nomads venerated the shrine and Muslim travellers would pray for blessing on their journey.

Geography and caravan trade

Map 1: 19th century trade routes through Shahidulla (located in the centre of the map, near the western bend of the Karakash River). The bold lines represent the Karakoram range in the south and the "northern branch" of the Kunlun Mountains in the north. The "southern branch" of the Kunlun mountains is unmarked. (Map not drawn to scale)

Shahidulla is situated between the Kunlun Mountains and the Karakoram range, "close to the southern foot of the former". It is at the western bend of the Karakash River, which originates in the Aksai Chin plains, flows northeast and makes a sharp bend to the west at the foot of the Kunlun range. After making another bend near Shahidulla, it flows northeast again, cutting through the Kunlun Mountains towards Khotan. The traditional site of Shahidulla is located northwest of the modern town, about 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) downstream.

Caravaners talk about a "southern branch" of the Kunlun range at the foot of which the Karakash flows, and a "northern branch" (also called the "Kilian range") which has various passes (from the west to east, Yangi, Kilik, Kilian, Sanju, Hindu-tagh and Ilchi passes). The Kilian (36°42′17″N 77°56′55″E / 36.7046°N 77.9485°E / 36.7046; 77.9485 (Kilian Pass)) and Sanju (36°40′13″N 78°14′44″E / 36.6702°N 78.2456°E / 36.6702; 78.2456 (Sanju Pass)) passes are the most often mentioned, which lead to Kashgar.

To the south of Shahidulla, the trade route passed through the site of Suget Karaul (the modern 'Saitula' town), ascended the valley of a stream to the Suget Pass (36°09′33″N 78°00′32″E / 36.15917°N 78.00889°E / 36.15917; 78.00889 (Suget Pass)) and, after crossing a junction point of Ak-tagh (35°58′26″N 78°01′41″E / 35.974°N 78.028°E / 35.974; 78.028 (Ak-tagh)), went over the Karakoram Pass into Ladakh. An alternative route to Ladakh from Shahidulla (called the "Chang Chenmo route") went along the Karakash river till reaching the Aksai Chin plains and then to Ladakh via the Chang Chenmo valley. This route was never really popular with the traders, despite the best efforts of the British Raj to promote it.

The entire area between the Karakoram range and the Kunlun Mountains is mostly uninhabited and has very little vegetation, except for the river valleys of Yarkand and Karakash. In these valleys, during the summer months, cultivation was possible. Kanjutis from Hunza used to cultivate in the Yarkand valley (called "Raskam" plots) and the Kirghiz from Turkestan used to cultivate in the area of Shahidullah. Shahidullah is described as a "seasonal township" in the sources, but it was little more than a campground in the 19th century.

Kulbhushan Warikoo states that, of the two trade routes between Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent, one in the west through Chitral and the Pamirs, and the other in the east through Shahidulla and Ladakh, the eastern route was more favoured by the traders as it was relatively safe from robberies and political turmoil:

Map 2: Shahidulla ("Chah-i-Doulla") and environs, French Army map 1906.

Such was the safety of this route that in the event of unfavourable weather or death of ponies, traders would march to a safe place leaving behind their goods which were fetched after the climate became favourable or substitute transport became available.

The absence of turmoil was not a given. In fact, the traders applied pressure on the rulers to avoid conflict. The Ladakhi rulers especially heeded such warnings, dependent as they were on trade for their prosperity.

History

There is legendary and documentary evidence that indicates that Indians from Taxila and the Chinese were among the first settlers of Khotan. In the first century BC, Kashmir and Khotan on the two sides of the Karakoram range formed a joint kingdom, which was ruled by either Scythian or Turki (Elighur) chiefs. Towards the end of the first century AD, the kingdom broke up into two parts: Khotan being annexed by the Chinese and Kashmir by Kanishka.

Some modern scholars believe the Kingdom of Zihe (Chinese: 子合; Wade–Giles: Tzu-ho) in Chinese historical records was situated at Shahidulla. This is not universally attested.

16th century

In late 15th century, Mirza Abu Bakr Dughlat from the Dughlat tribe founded an independent kingdom for himself from the fragmentation of Moghulistan. The kingdom encompassed Hotan and Kashgar. However, he was deposed in the 1510s by Sultan Said Khan who founded the Yarkand Khanate. While attempting to flee to Ladakh, Abu Bakr was intercepted and killed. His tomb is located about 30 kilometres (20 miles) north of modern-day town of Xaidulla.

19th century

Map 3: W. H. Johnson's map of the territory of Ladakh (1865); Johnson's route to Khotan and back marked in red
Map 4: Jammu and Kashmir section of the 1888 Survey of India map of India; the northern border passes through Aktagh instead of the Johnson's line along the Kilian and Sanju passes. The undefined boundary shown in dash line from Malubiting, Raskam, Aktagh to a peak on Kunlun mountains 35°16′59″N 80°15′43″E / 35.2831°N 80.2619°E / 35.2831; 80.2619 (Kunlun boundary point)

In the nineteenth century, Shahidulla became the centre of a multi-pronged game between Kashmir, the British Empire in India, China, Kashgaria and the Russian Empire.

About 120 Kirghiz nomad families lived in Shahidulla in forty tents. Their head-man was called Turdi Kul. The British regarded the Kirghiz as Chinese subjects and believed that they "always" paid taxes to Yarkand. Yet there is evidence that this may not have occurred till 1881, and the Chinese considered them to be living beyond their boundaries. The Kirghiz faced periodic raids from the Kanjutis of Hunza, who controlled the Yarkand River valley (called "Raskam") and had protection from China. They also carried off people and sold them into slavery.

The Dogra ruler of Jammu, Raja Gulab Singh, then a vassal of the Sikh Empire, conquered Ladakh in 1834. According to Francis Younghusband, all the area up to Shahidulla was immediately taken under control by the Dogras. This was of no consequence to the Chinese in Turkestan (present day Xinjiang) as they viewed the northern Kunlun range as their border. In 1846, Gulab Singh came under the suzerainty of the British as the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir. The British were inclined to view the Karakoram range as the natural boundary of the Indian subcontinent and they viewed the Maharaja's claim to Shahidulla with trepidation.

This left the tract between the Karakoram and Kunlun ranges as a no-man's land. Since regular trade caravans passed through the area, which were open to robber raids, securing it became important to the new Dogra regime in Kashmir. A fort at Shahidulla was apparently constructed by the Dogras at an uncertain date. George Hayward later described it as 'a stone fort and several ruined huts'. Around 1864, when the Chinese authority in Turkestan was overthrown by the Kokand chieftain Yakub Beg, the Dogra governor of Ladakh stationed a garrison of troops at the fort. Described as a chauki (police post), it had a contingent of 25 men including customs officials. The post was abandoned in 1866, apparently due to the difficulty of maintaining it at a great distance. In 1868, Robert Shaw and Hayward found it occupied by Kokandi troops.

In the interim, in 1865, the British surveyor W. H. Johnson, tasked with surveying the Ladakhi territory "up to Chinese frontiers", received an invitation for a visit from the Khan of Khotan named Haji Habibullah. Johnson spent a few weeks in Khotan and returned via Sanju Pass and Shahidulla. The border of Ladakh he drew was along the northern Kunlun range (on which the Kilian and Sanju passes lay), and included the Karakash valley within Ladakh.

By 1873, Douglas Forsyth was dispatched by the British on a diplomatic mission to Yakub Beg. The Forsyth Mission recognised Shahidullah as part of the "Khan's dominion", and placed the boundary between British Empire and Turkestan at Ak-tagh, south of the Suget Pass. (See Map 1) From this point on, the British officials began to reject Dogra claims to Shahidulla.

In 1877, Yakub Beg died and the Chinese reasserted their authority in Turkestan (renaming it as Xinjiang—"new dominion"). They however stuck to their original posts (karawals) on the north side of the Kilian and Sanju passes, and showed no interest in occupying Shahidulla. As late as 1889, the Turdi Kol reported that Chinese officials told him that Shahidulla was "British territory".

In 1889, Francis Younghusband, who was tasked with finding measures to counteract a potential Russian aggression in the area, proposed that the Chinese be encouraged to occupy all the no man's land between the British and Russian territories and serve as a buffer zone. This was agreed by the British administration, and the British envoy in Peking was instructed to discuss the matter with the Chinese government. Simultaneously, Younghusband was sent on a second mission to Yarkand to "induce" the Chinese officials to expand and fill out the no man's land. The means he used to induce them are not precisely known, but by the end of his mission, the Chinese officials showed a firm commitment to occupy Shahidulla, and even all the area up to the Karakoram Pass. It appears that they stationed troops at the Shahidulla fort during the summer months of 1890, but withdrew them during winter. Further in 1892, they knocked down the Shahidulla fort and built a new fort at Suget Karaul (36°20′48″N 78°01′32″E / 36.3467°N 78.02564°E / 36.3467; 78.02564 (Suget Karaul)), about 10 km. southeast of Shahidulla, where the road from Suget Pass enters the Karakash Valley. Younghusband reported that the Chinese were asserting authority all the way to the Karakoram range, and the site was said to be the closest place to the range where grass and fuel were available.


20th and 21st centuries

Map including Xaidulla (labelled as Xaidulla (Sai-t’u-la)) (DMA, 1980)

By the early 20th century, the Shahidullah region was under Chinese control and considered part of Xinjiang Province, and has remained so ever since. Xaidulla is well to the north of any territories claimed by either India or Pakistan, while the Sanju and Kilian passes are further to the north of Xaidulla. A Sinkiang–Tibet road (or "Aksai Chin road", now part of G219) was laid by China in the 1950s, which runs from Yecheng in the Tarim Basin, south through Xaidulla, and across the Aksai Chin region, controlled by China but claimed by India, into northwestern Tibet.

Current status

Sometime after the construction of the road, Chinese administration built a village at Suget Karaul and named it "Saitula". The nomad population of the former Shahidula apparently took up residence in the new village. In May 2010, Saitula was made a township.

The township includes one village, which was formerly part of Kangir Kirghiz Township:

Transportation

China National Highway 219 passes through the town of Saitula as well as the historical Shahidullah site. A mountain road runs from the historical site to the town of Sanju in the Tarim basin via the Sanju Pass.

See also

Notes

  1. Alternative spellings: Shahidullah and Shahidula.
  2. There are also records indicating that Gulab Singh's general Zorawar Singh threatened to invade Chinese Turkestan itself, but he was restrained by the British Raj.
  3. Ney Elias, a British officer placed in Ladakh, reported (possibly representing Dogra claims) that the fort had been occupied by the Dogras for 20 years and that it was abandoned about 1865.
  4. Other reports indicate that the post was meant to guard against the raids of the Kanjutis (the people of Hunza, a vassal state of Kashmir) on the trade caravans, in an apparent effort to ward off Yakub Beg's own initiative to address the problem.
  5. Robert Barkley Shaw, a British merchant in Kangra, India, visited Shahidulla in 1868 on his trip to Yarkand, via the Karakoram Pass. He was held in detention for a time at the fort, which was under the control of the Governor of Yarkand on behalf of Yakub Beg. Shaw writes: "it is merely a camping-ground on the regular old route between Ladâk and Yârkand, and the first place where I should strike that route. Four years ago , while the troubles were still going on in Toorkistân, the Maharaja of Cashmeer sent a few soldiers and workmen across the Karakoram ranges (his real boundary), and built a small fort at Shahidoolla. This fort his troops occupied during two summers; but last year, when matters became settled; and the whole country united under the King of Yarkand, these troops were withdrawn."
  6. Indications are that Younghusband "provoked" the Chinese by telling them that the British would occupy the Karakash valley if they did not do so.

References

  1. ^ Campbell, Mike. "User-submitted name Shahidullah". Behind the Name. Retrieved 11 January 2020. Shahidulla, Shahidula, Shahid Allah means "witness of Allah", from Arabic شَهِيد (šahīd) "witness" and الله (Allah).
  2. ^ "1950年解放军到达昆仑山，国军兄弟说：等了四年，可算来人了" [In 1950 the PLA arrived in Kunlun Mountain, the brothers in KMT Army said: we waited four years (to be relieved), you finally arrived.]. sohu.com. 20 April 2018. Retrieved 11 January 2020. 这里曾经是一个哨所，全名叫塞图拉哨所，营房在海拔3700米的三十里营房，赛图拉这个古老哨所遗址指向牌是由南疆军区前指和和田军分区前指共同所立，距三十里营房十五公里。...赛图拉是维语，汉语意思是殉教者们。
  3. Northern Ngari in Detail: Activities, Lonely Planet, retrieved 12 September 2018.
  4. Collins World Atlas Illustrated Edition (3rd ed.). HarperCollins. 2007. p. 82. ISBN 978-0-00-723168-3 – via Internet Archive. Xaidulla
  5. Mehra, An "agreed" frontier (1992), p. 62: "It was only after 1890 that the Chinese, advancing south, pulled down the Shahidulla fort and built another close to the Sugat pass, some 12 km south of Shahidulla."
  6. ^ De Filippi, Filippo (1932), The Italian Expedition to the Himalaya, Karakoram and Eastern Turkestan (1913–1914), London: Edward Arnold & Co., p. 422 – via archive.org, In the centre of the valley, on the left bank, but at a distance from the river, is Suget Karaul (the fort of Suget), a massive square of masonry, with thick battlemented walls some 16 feet high, made of pebbles cemented with mud. (Photographs on pages 424 and 426.)
  7. ^ "Dring the silk road on China national highway 219 for tour from Xinjiang to Tibet". China Silk Road Tours. Archived from the original on 12 January 2020. Retrieved 11 January 2020. Day 8: Ali – Bangongcuo Lake – Sanshili Yingfang
  8. PLA Daily (2006-03-06). "PLA medical station on highest elevation opens". Chinese Embassy in India. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  9. ^ Henry Walter Bellew (1875). Kashmir and Kashghar: A Narrative of the Journey of the Embassy to Kashghar in 1873-74. Trübner. p. 185. Shahidulla Khoja, which gives its name to the locality, is a sacred shrine on the top of a bluff ... upon the grave of some fugitive Khoja from Yarkand, who was killed here by his Khitay pursuers at the time the Chinese conquered the country, a century or so ago. ... his memory is venerated by the Kirghiz nomads of the locality ... Musalman travellers passing this way toil up the slope to repeat a blessing over his tomb, and invoke the nameless martyr's intercession for God's protection on their onward journey.
  10. William Moorcroft; George Trebeck (1841). Horace Hayman Wilson (ed.). Travels in the Himalayan provinces of Hindustan: and the Panjab, in Ladakh and Kashmir, in Peshawar, Kabul, Kunduz, and Bokhara. J. Murray. p. 375. The former rises in the mountains of Khoten, and runs from east to west for twenty-four kos to Shahid Ullah Khajeh, and then north for twelve kos, where it receives the Toghri su, or straight water, which rises in the Karlik Dawan, or ice mountains.
  11. Mir Izzet Ullah (1843). "Travels beyond the Himalaya". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. 7 (2). Cambridge University Press: 299. JSTOR 25207596. Near Kirghiz thicket is a pass, by which a road runs in a north-easterly direction to the sepulchre of Shahid Ullah Khajeh, one day's march: one night's journey from hence is a mine of Yeshm.
  12. ^ Mehra, An "agreed" frontier (1992), p. 62.
  13. Phanjoubam, The Northeast Question (2015), pp. 12–14.
  14. Warikoo, Trade relations between Central Asia and Kashmir Himalayas (1996), paragraph 2.
  15. Rizvi, The trans-Karakoram trade in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (1994), pp. 28–29.
  16. Sastri, K. A. Nilakanta (1967), Age of the Nandas and Mauryas, Motilal Banarsidass, pp. 220–221, ISBN 978-81-208-0466-1; Mirsky, Jeannette (1998), Sir Aurel Stein: Archaeological Explorer, University of Chicago Press, p. 83, ISBN 978-0-226-53177-9
  17. Fan Ye. "子合國"  [Kingdom of Zihe]. Book of the Later Han (in Chinese). Vol. 88 – via Wikisource.
  18. John E. Hill (July 2003). "Section 6 – The Kingdom of Zihe 子合 (modern Shahidulla)". Notes to The Western Regions according to the Hou Hanshu (2nd ed.). Washington University. Retrieved 3 February 2020.
  19. Ulrich Theobald (Oct 16, 2011). "Pishan 皮山 and the states in the Pamir Range". ChinaKnowledge.de. Retrieved 3 February 2020. During the Later Han period the state fell apart in Xiye proper and the state of Zihe 子合 (modern name Shahidullah).
  20. Rong, Xinjiang (Feb 2007). "阚氏高昌王国与柔然、西域的关系" [Relations of the Gaochang Kingdom under the Kan Family with the Rouran Qaghanate and the Western Regions during the Second Half of the 5th Century] (PDF). Historical Research (in Chinese). ISSN 0459-1909. Retrieved 3 February 2020. 子合国在西域南道, 今和田与塔什库尔干之间的叶城县治哈尔噶里克 (Karghalik)
  21. 中国古代史 (in Chinese). 中国人民大学书报资料社. 1982. p. 54. 子合的位置应即今日帕米尔高原的小帕米尔东部,塔克敦巴什帕米尔南部地区,东延直至喇斯库穆及密尔岱西南山区一带。
  22. Bellew, Henry Walter (1875). The history of Káshgharia. p. 62. took possession of the city at end of Rajab 920H ... Ababakar fled before them from Khutan to Caranghotagh. ... fled towards Tibet. ... He was intercepted, seized, and killed by a party of his many pursuers in the Caracash valley, where a mean tomb on the river bank, two stages from Shahidulla Khoja, now marks the site of his grave.
  23. Noorani, India–China Boundary Problem (2010), p. 54.
  24. Noorani, India–China Boundary Problem (2010)
  25. Noorani, India–China Boundary Problem (2010), p. 58: "Younghusband arrived in Shahidulla on 21 August 1889 and met the Turdi Kol, the Kirghiz chief. Two Chinese officials, the Kargilik and the Yarkand Ambans, had told him that Shahidulla was British territory."
  26. Noorani, India–China Boundary Problem (2010), pp. 54–55.
  27. ^ Rizvi, The trans-Karakoram trade in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (1994), pp. 37–38.
  28. Mehra, An "agreed" frontier (1992), pp. 57, 87: "Shahidulla was occupied by the Dogras almost from the time they conquered Ladakh."
  29. Datta, Chaman Lal (1984), General Zorawar Singh, His Life and Achievements in Ladakh, Baltistan, and Tibet, Deep & Deep Publications, p. 63
  30. Mehra, An "agreed" frontier (1992): "In his detailed memorandum, Younghusband recalled it was always accepted that the frontier extended up to the Muztagh mountains and the Karakoram pass, the only unsettled question being as to whether it should include Shahidulla."
  31. Fisher, Rose & Huttenback, Himalayan Battleground (1963), pp. 64–65.
  32. ^ Noorani, India–China Boundary Problem (2010), p. 48.
  33. Mehra, An "agreed" frontier (1992), p. 48.
  34. Mehra, An "agreed" frontier (1992), p. 37.
  35. ^ Kaul, India China Boundary in Kashmir (2003), p. 76.
  36. Shaw (1871), pp. 100-
  37. Shaw (1871), p. 107
  38. Mehra, An "agreed" frontier (1992), pp. 34–35.
  39. Mehra, An "agreed" frontier (1992), p. 43.
  40. Noorani, India–China Boundary Problem (2010), p. 43.
  41. Mehra, An "agreed" frontier (1992), p. 57.
  42. Mehra, An "agreed" frontier (1992), p. 58: "Younghusband arrived in Shahidulla on 21 August 1889 and met the Turdi Kol, the Kirghiz chief. Two Chinese officials, the Kargilik and the Yarkand Ambans, had told him that Shahidulla was British territory.".
  43. ^ Mehra, An "agreed" frontier (1992), p. 59.
  44. Van Eekelen, Indian Foreign Policy and the Border Dispute (1967), p. 160: "Instead of occupying the territory which was lying defenceless and unclaimed by China and over which Hunza and Kashmir had genuine claims, the British wanted to limit their responsibilities to a strategically sound and politically safe frontier. They attempted to induce China to occupy the territory involved."
  45. Mehra, An "agreed" frontier (1992), p. 6: "The British explorer's interview with the Amban at Yarkand is also revealing, the latter being virtually bulldozed into owning that Peking had always considered the Karakoram range as the boundary between Kashmir and Yarkand. Moreover, that his country would be prepared to protect the Leh-Kashgar trade route as far as that range!"
  46. ^ Mehra, An "agreed" frontier (1992), p. 63.
  47. Mehra, An "agreed" frontier (1992), p. 62.
  48. Stanton (1908), Map. No. 19 - Sinkiang
  49. National Geographic Atlas of China (2008), p. 28.
  50. 皮山县历史沿革 [Pishan County Historical Development] (in Simplified Chinese). XZQH.org. 2 December 2014. Retrieved 29 December 2019. 2010年5月，自治区政府批准设立赛图拉镇。
  51. 2009年皮山县行政区划 [2009 Pishan County Administrative Divisions] (in Simplified Chinese). XZQH.org. 6 January 2011. Retrieved 16 January 2020. 653223212 康克尔柯尔克孜族乡 {...} 653223212203 220 色日克克尔村
  52. 2018年统计用区划代码和城乡划分代码：赛图拉镇 [2018 Statistical Area Numbers and Rural-Urban Area Numbers: Xaidulla Town] (in Simplified Chinese). National Bureau of Statistics of the People's Republic of China. 2018. Retrieved 16 January 2020. 统计用区划代码 城乡分类代码 名称 653223102200 121 色日克克尔村委会
  53. Noorani, India–China Boundary Problem (2010), p. 58.
  54. China National Highway 219 in the vicinity of Saitula, OpenStreetMap, retrieved 12 October 2022.
  55. Modern travel route between Saitula and Sanju via the Sanju Pass, OpenStreetMap, retrieved 12 October 2022.

Bibliography

Further reading

  • National Geographic Atlas of China (2008). National Geographic Society, Washington, D.C. ISBN 978-1-4262-0136-3.
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