First Nepal - Tibet War

The relations started formingsour after the Malla rulers started tomint impure silver coins just beforetheir downfall. The Tibetansdemanded that the coins be replacedby pure silver ones. When Prithvi
Narayan Shah took over, he foundthat it would be a great loss to him ifhe conceded to the Tibetan demands.That case remained unsolved due tohis untimely demise. Queen Mother Rajendra Laxmi,the Regent of minor King Rana Bahadur Shah, inheritedthe coinage problem which reached the culminating pointin 1888 AD. Another sore point in Nepal-Tibet relationswas Nepal’s decision to provide refuge to SyamarpaLama with his 14 Tibetan followers. He had fled fromTibet to Nepal on religious and political grounds. Yetanother cause for conflict was the low quality salt beingprovided by Tibetans to Nepal. All salt came from Tibetin those days. Tibet ignored the Nepalese ultimatumsand that promoted the preparations for war. Nepal wassoon preparing to launch multi-directional attacks.

Kerung Axis : Kaji Balbhadra Shah was themain Commander of the offensive attack from Kerungaxis. Kaji Kirtimansingh Basnyat, Sardar AmarsinghThapa and Bhotu Pandey were the subordinatecommanders under him. Approximately 6,000 troopsand 3,200 porters were despatched for this operation.Their main objective was to capture Dirgacha throughKerung. The march of the troops was delayed becauseBalbhadra Shah became seriously ill. They crossedKerung on 20th July, 1788 and captured Jhunga on the3rd of August 1788. Bhotu Pandey was captured bythe Tibetans. The Nepalese troops were reinforced with2,000 more troops and Bhotu Pandey was freed fromthe Tibetans on 14th October, 1788.

Kuti Axis (I): Shree Krishna Shah was theCommander and Kaji Ranajit Pandey, Sardar ParathBhandari, Captain Harsa Panta, Captain NaharsinghBasnyat and Captain Shiva Narayan Khatri were thesubordinate commanders under him. About 5,800soldiers and 3,000 porters were allotted for the offensiveoperation. Later on, Kaji Abhimansingh Basnyat andRanajit Kunwar also joined this offensive. The DalaiLama was taken by surprise and to protect hissovereignty, he initiated a parallel approach wherebyhe asked military help from Sovan Shahi, the King ofJumla in West Nepal, and requested him to launchguerrilla activities and revolt against the Nepalese Armyin and around Jumla. Sovan Shahi did revolt at Humlaand captured some fortresses. The Dalai Lama alsoasked for military help from the Chinese Emperor.Additionally, he himself and Panchen Lama of Dirgachawrote a secret letter ot East India Company seekingmilitary assistance.The Tibetans also initiated propaganda abouthaving constructed a new road through the Tigri valleyand establishing a post at the front. They also rumouredthat they had assembled an Army of 1,25,000 men.But the Tibetans could get nothing from Jumla, ChinaCaptured Tibetan Cannons made of leatheror the East India Company.Kuti Axis (II): Kaji Damodar Pandey wasleading his troops with subordinate commanders BomShah, Dev Dutta Thapa and others. He was given about4,000 troops and his objective was to capture Dirgachavia the Kuti axis.

The Battles

Nepalese troops, having crossed the Himalayascaptured Chhochyang and Kuti in June 1788 andSikarjong on 3rd August, 1788, in spite of many difficultlogistic limitations. Later, Bahadur Shah was able toprovide some reinforcements and improve somelogistics arrangements. Still that was not enough andprogress was slow. When the Nepalese were about tocapture Dirgacha via both Kuti and Kerung, theTibetans started to make compromises with Nepalesecommanders. Bahadur Shah started negotiations,ultimately arriving at a solution. Prisoners were handedback to the Tibetans. Tibet was ready to pay tributes tothe tune of Rs. 50,000 in silver coins per annum to Nepaland a treaty was signed on 2nd June 1789 in Kerung.The treaty is called the ‘Treaty of Kerung’ by historians.Rasuwa Gadhi and Timure were the firm basesin the first Nepal-Tibet war. Syabru Besi and RasuwaGadhi were Strategic points in this war. Likewise, Listiand Duguna villages were the main bases for offensiveoperations against Tibet. They were the forward mostdumping places of the Royal Nepalese Army. AlthoughRasuwa Gadhi and Duguna Gadhi Fortresses were notconstructed at the time, the places themselves wereimportant because of their military significance.

External links

*http://www.infoclub.com.np/nepal/history/