THE CHUNGSA-KHAGA PASS (Baspa Valley Kinnaur Himachal Pradesh)

A lot have been known of the famous NELANG village which was the trade centre for the three great kingdoms of Bushahr, Gharwal and Tibet in the era of 16-17th century.
For those who do not know, Nelang(NOW IN GHARWAL) was the epiccentre of the trade between these three kingdoms through which the trade was carried out during that era. The area was banned after the Indo-China war of 1962 due to its close proximity o the Chinese border. the tribals of the area were shifted to low lying regions and the area was sealed off.

Bushahr kingdom in 1911

But the main attraction here is not Nelang , It is the Chorgaad valley and the lesser known Chunsa-khaga Pass located in Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh.
During the 17th century under the rule of The Great Raja Kehri of Bushahr, when the Bushahr kingdom was on its zenith the whole trading triple trading point of Nelang came under his rule and to travel to these proximate regions a way was needed which was the Chorgaad valley. during that timethe traders and the army of the kingdom crossed the Chunsa-khagaand the Chor-gaad valley to reach the regions of Tibet and Gharwal. the legend also says that during the 15-16th century the tradesmen used this way to avoid the taxes from the ruler when Nelang was under Gharwal kingdom as the pass was difficult to travel nd hence the "CHOR" Gaad (the way of thieves). After the decline of Raja Kehri's dynasty the legend of Chunsa-khaga was also lost with the wealth of its kingdom. In 18th century this area was surveyed by some foreigners which opened the gates of Chor-gaad valley again for the explorers

SCHLAGINTWEITS BOTHERS - surveyed Himalayas in 18th century 

The Chunsa-khaga pass at a height of nearly 18000 ft (5500mts) sits between the Baspa glacier which fills the Baspa river the lifeline of well known Sangla valley and Chorgaad valley. any information about this pass was lost for nearly 400 years. the only known fact that there was a pass sitting atop the kalapani glacier(chor-gaad valley) and baspa glacier was by the accounts of the foreign surveyers who surveyed the Chor-gaad in 18th century. but even after that no known expidition was made to the pass until 2009 when som mountaineer explorers got together and using some old and new data from SAT gprs tried to find the lost Chunsa-khaga pass and they were successful.

The Chung-sakhaga pass

The climb to the pass is extreme level and can be reached from sangla throgh chitkul and further onto the Baspa glacier. from the Gharwal region one can start the trekk from uttarkashi reaching the Thandapani and Kalapani glacier through Chor-gaad valley. The perfect time to trekk is said to be september - october but the past accounts have also shown travel in the months of april may. the climate changes very fast on the top as is the case for all high altitude passes.

once on the top the outline of the ranges of  Sri Kailash and Mt. Kamat can also be seen. travelling to Chungsa-khaga has been dream of many explorers but reaching there needs a lot other than just the will of reaching the top.
The link of the 2009 expedition is given below

http://snowscapes.blogspot.in/2014/08/janhavi-exploration-iii-chor-gad-baspa.html?m=1

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