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32-619: The Ardagh–Johnson Line is one of three boundary lines considered by the British Indian government, the other two being the Macartney–MacDonald Line and a line along the Karakoram range. The British preference among the three choices varied over time based on the perception of their strategic interests in India. The Ardagh–Johnson Line represented the "forward school" that wanted to advance

64-525: A clear manner. After much back and forth, the department concluded that Johnson (and those who followed him) had an unconvincing view of the Indus watershed and their traverse-maps were too imprecise (and lacking in details) to serve the purpose of adjudicating territorial boundaries. In 1897 a British military officer, Sir John Ardagh, proposed a boundary line along the crest of the Kun Lun Mountains north of

96-543: A result, new surveys (along with boundary commissions) were frequently set up. However, extremely inhospitable geological conditions of Northeast Kashmir and difficulty in determining water-sheds across the Aksai Chin meant a continued lack of precision surveys covering this region. In 1888, the Joint Commissioner of Ladakh requested India's Foreign Department to demarcate boundaries across northern and eastern Kashmir in

128-699: A revision of the prevailing boundary, ceding underpopulated border territory to be "filled out" by China. It was initially suggested by Macartney in Kashgar and developed by the Governor General of India Lord Elgin . The new boundary placed the Lingzi Tang plains, which are south of the Laktsang range, in India, and Aksai Chin proper, which is north of the Laktsang range, in China. The British presented this line, currently called

160-615: A semi-mythical location in the classical Chinese text Classic of Mountains and Seas . From the Pamirs of Tajikistan , the Kunlun Mountains run east through southern Xinjiang to Qinghai province. They stretch along the southern edge of what is now called the Tarim Basin , the infamous Taklamakan desert, and the Gobi Desert . A number of important rivers flow from the range including

192-641: Is a partial basis of the Sino-Pakistan Agreement . It has been suggested that a solution to the Sino-Indian border dispute could also be based on the Macartney–MacDonald Line. The Macartney–MacDonald line is described as follows: "From the Karakoram Pass the crests of the range run nearly east for about half a degree, and then turn south to a little below the 35th parallel.. Rounding...

224-673: Is crossed by only two. In the west, Highway 219 traverses the range en route from Yecheng, Xinjiang to Lhatse, Tibet. Further east, Highway 109 crosses between Lhasa and Golmud . Over 70 volcanic cones form the Kunlun Volcanic Group. They are not volcanic mountains, but cones. As such, they are not counted among the world volcanic mountain peaks. The group, however, musters the heights of 5,808 metres (19,055 ft) above sea level ( 35°30′N 80°12′E  /  35.5°N 80.2°E  / 35.5; 80.2 ). If they were considered volcanic mountains, they would constitute

256-606: Is the capital of the emperor, and the god of the land." Gu Jiegang divides the Chinese mythology system into the Kunlun system and the Penglai system based on the eastern and western regions. He believes that the myth of Kunlun In mythology, Kunlun Mountain is the birthplace and ancestral place of the Chinese nation. In mythology, Kunlun Mountain is the center of heaven and earth. It goes up to

288-593: The Aksai Chin region in Kashmir. The border was accepted by China for several decades. In 1893, Hung Ta-chen, the Chinese envoy at St. Petersburg , gave maps of the region to George Macartney , the British consul at Kashgar, which coincided with it in broad details. However, by 1896, China showed interest in Aksai Chin, reportedly with Russian instigation. As part of The Great Game between Britain and Russia, Britain favoured

320-468: The Johnson–Ardagh Line . Independent scholars have not confirmed the claim. It remains relevant today as a possible resolution for the Sino-Indian border dispute in the region of Aksai Chin . The Survey of India surveyor William Johnson , who was asked to survey the Kashmir area up to the "Chinese boundary", drew a border line that later came to be called the " Johnson Line ". This line put

352-765: The Karakash River ('Black Jade River') and the Yurungkash River ('White Jade River'), which flow through the Khotan Oasis into the Taklamakan Desert . To the south of the Kunlun is the sparsely populated Changtang region, which forms part of the Tibetan Plateau . Altyn-Tagh or Altun Range is one of the chief northern ranges of the Kunlun. Its northeastern extension Qilian Shan is another main northern range of

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384-674: The Qilian and Qin Mountains . Recent sources have the Kunlun range forming most of the south side of the Tarim Basin and then continuing east, south of the Altyn Tagh. Sima Qian ( Records of the Grand Historian , scroll 123) says that Emperor Wu of Han sent men to find the source of the Yellow River and gave the name Kunlun to the mountains at its source. The name seems to have originated as

416-570: The Survey of India . He surveyed the region now called Aksai Chin in 1865. The results of the survey were published in a "Kashmir Atlas" in 1868. The boundaries shown therein have been reproduced in practically all British and international maps of the British Raj till 1947. (See Maps 2–4.) Major General John Charles Ardagh was the chief of the British military intelligence in London, who formally proposed to

448-570: The Yarkand River . At the time Britain was concerned at the danger of Russian expansion as China weakened, and Ardagh argued that his line was more defensible. The Ardagh line was effectively a modification of the Johnson line, and became known as the "Ardagh–Johnson Line". In 1911 the Xinhai Revolution resulted in power shifts in China, and by the end of World War I , the British officially used

480-492: The "Johnson Line". In 1893, Hung Ta-chen, a senior Chinese official at St. Petersburg , provided a map which coincided with the Ardagh–Johnson line in broad details. It showed the boundary of Xinjiang up to Raskam. In the east, it was similar to the Ardagh–Johnson line, placing Aksai Chin in Kashmir territory. Since the late 1800s, local government officials were increasingly unhappy with accuracy of such traverse-maps and as

512-476: The Aksai Chin that they considered the Kunlun range to be the de facto boundary between Sinkiang and Kashmir. Indeed, most of the territory currently in dispute between New Delhi and Peking would have been conceded to China under this settlement. The Chinese Communists must indeed find it galling that the Ch'ing Court did not even formally reply to the British offer, thus rejecting it by default. The Macartney–MacDonald Line

544-499: The Aksai Chin, in a manner that resembled the Ardagh–Johnson Line. India's basis for defining the border was “ chiefly by long usage and custom .”. Unlike the Johnson line, India did not claim the northern areas near Shahidulla and Khotan . Macartney%E2%80%93MacDonald Line The Macartney–MacDonald Line was a boundary proposal by the British Raj for the border between the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir and

576-581: The Ardagh–Johnson Line. From 1917 to 1933, the "Postal Atlas of China", published by the Government of China in Peking showed the boundary in Aksai Chin as per the Ardagh–Johnson line, which runs along the Kunlun Mountains . The "Peking University Atlas", published in 1925, also put the Aksai Chin in India. Upon independence in 1947, the government of India fixed its official boundary in the west, which included

608-420: The British Indian government the alignment drawn by Johnson as the boundary of India in 1897. The term "Johnson boundary" was used by historian Alastair Lamb in his book The China–India Border (1964) and "Johnson line" by journalist Neville Maxwell . No names were used for the boundary lines in the northeast of Kashmir prior to these authors. Scholar Steven Hoffman later used "Ardagh–Johnson Line" to refer to

640-640: The Chinese territories of Xinjiang and Tibet . Broadly, it represented the watershed between the Indus River system and the rivers draining into the Tarim basin (the Yarkand and Karakash rivers). The line was proposed by British Indian Government to China in 1899 via its envoy in China, Sir Claude MacDonald . The Chinese Government never gave any response to the proposal. The Indian Government believed that, subsequently British India reverted to its traditional boundary,

672-458: The Kunlun extends further northwest-wards as far as Kongur Tagh (7,649 m) and the famous Muztagh Ata (7,546 m). But these mountains are physically much more closely linked to the Pamir group (ancient Mount Imeon ). The Arka Tagh (Arch Mountain) is in the center of the Kunlun Mountains; its highest points are Ulugh Muztagh (6,973 m) and Bukadaban Feng (6,860 m). In the eastern Kunlun Mountains

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704-638: The Kunlun. In the south main extension is the Min Shan . Bayan Har Mountains , a southern branch of the Kunlun Mountains, forms the watershed between the catchment basins of China 's two longest rivers, the Yangtze River and the Yellow River . The highest mountain of the Kunlun Mountains is the Kunlun Goddess Peak (7,167 m) in the Keriya area of the western Kunlun Mountains. Some authorities claim that

736-468: The Macartney–MacDonald line, to the Chinese in a note by Sir Claude MacDonald , the British envoy in Peking. The Qing government did not respond to the note. Scholars Fisher, Rose and Huttenback comment: This proposed border agreement would have entailed major territorial concessions by the British, since the Government of India had demonstrated both on maps and through the exercise of authority in

768-483: The boundary as forward as possible as a defence against the growing Russian empire. Following the Chinese reluctance to acquiesce to the more conservative Macartney–MacDonald Line, the British eventually reverted to the forward line in the Aksai Chin area, which was then inherited by the independent Republic of India . W. H. Johnson was the lead surveyor of Ladakh in the Kashmir Survey team instituted 1847–1865 by

800-460: The broadest sense, the chain forms the northern edge of the Tibetan Plateau south of the Tarim Basin . Located in Western China , the Kunlun Mountains have been known as the "Forefather of Mountains" in China. The exact definition of the Kunlun Mountains varies over time. Older sources used Kunlun to mean the mountain belt that runs across the center of China, that is, Altyn Tagh along with

832-656: The highest peaks are Yuzhu Peak (6,224 m) and Amne Machin [also Dradullungshong] (6,282 m); the latter is the major eastern peak of the Kunlun Mountains and is thus considered as the eastern edge of the Kunlun Mountains. The mountain range formed at the northern edges of the Cimmerian Plate during its collision, in the Late Triassic , with Siberia , which resulted in the closing of the Paleo-Tethys Ocean . The range has very few roads and in its 3,000 km length

864-518: The highest volcano in Asia and China and second highest in the Eastern Hemisphere (after Mount Kilimanjaro ) and one of Volcanic Seven Summits by elevation. (Mount Damavand is the highest volcano in Asia, not the Kunlun cones.) The last known eruption in the volcanic group was on May 27, 1951. Legendary and mystical mountains are a long-standing aspect of Chinese civilization. Kunlun is originally

896-516: The line generally shown on British maps, which differs from the "Johnson line" in its northern boundary. In May 1865, W. H. Johnson of the Survey of India was commissioned to undertake a survey of "beyond and to the north of the Chang Chenmo valley", as a part of the Kashmir Series. Accordingly, he engaged in a hasty north–south traverse survey of the hitherto-unexplored Aksai Chin, following

928-408: The main trade route — averaging about thirty miles per day. The resulting map was published in 1867. Johnson noted that Khotan 's border was at Brinjga, in the Kunlun Mountains, and the entire Karakash Valley was within the territory of Kashmir. The boundary of Kashmir that he drew, stretching from Sanju Pass to the eastern edge of Chang Chenmo Valley along the Kunlun mountains, is referred to as

960-583: The name of a mythical mountain believed to be a Taoist paradise . Kunlun is a semi-mythical region not far from the source of the Yellow River. The Kunlun Mountains entered Chinese ideology during the Warring States period (475–221 BCE), and have become closely integrated into Chinese culture. In the Book of Mountains and Seas , the Kunlun Mountains are mentioned: Which means "The hill of Kunlun, which

992-657: The sky and is the staircase to the sky. The "Kunlun Mythology" system takes Kunlun Mountain as an iconic place, and mainly focuses on the myths and stories of related characters such as the Yellow Emperor and the Queen Mother of the West ( Xi Wang Mu ). Stories such as Kuafu chasing the sun, Gonggong's anger touching Buzhou Mountain, and Chang'e flying to the moon all originate from Kunlun mythology. Mao Dun pointed out: According to legend, King Mu (976–922 BCE, Zhou dynasty )

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1024-618: The source of the Karakash, the line of hills to be followed runs north-east to a point east of Kizil Jilga and from there, in a south-easterly direction, follows the Lak Tsung (Lokzhung) Range until that meets a spur.. which has hitherto been shown on our maps as the eastern boundary of Ladakh." Kunlun Mountains The Kunlun Mountains constitute one of the longest mountain chains in Asia , extending for more than 3,000 kilometres (1,900 mi). In

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