Ancient period Very little ancient history is known about the region apart from the Northwestern corner, and the areas bordering current
Assam. The Northwestern regions came under Monpa and
Tibetan control. Northwestern parts of this area came under the control of the Monpa kingdom of Monyul under Tibet which flourished between 500 BCE and 600 CE. The
Monpa and
Sherdukpen keep historical records of the existence of local chiefdoms in the northwest as well. According to Tibetan chronicles, Monyul was ruled by Gongkar Gyal, descendant of an exiled Tibetan ruler named
Lhase Tsangma, the brother of Tibetan king
Ralpacan who arrived in Monyul in 837 A.D or earlier. A descendant of Gongkar Gyal became the ruler of Trashiyangtse region of Bhutan and Gapde Tsan another descendant was the ruler of Khorwong valley in
Thembang town (now
West Kameng district, Arunachal Pradesh). Later, the second son of Gongkar Gyal, Wongme Palde who returned to Tibet owing to the poverty in Khorwong valley came back to Monyul to become its ruler. The Monpas () ་known to the
Chinese as
Menba were responsible for trade between Assam and Tibet and held the Koriapar Dooar at
Sonitpur district of
Assam. The Monpa chief were subordinate to the ruler of
Tawang who in turn were subordinate to the
Government of Tibet or Ganden Phodrang in
Lhasa. The Tibetan government at Lhasa appointed Tibetan officials called Gellongs to supervise the local Monpa chief. The Monpa chief who looked after the Duar were called Tsorgon, a position created in the 16th century.
Medieval period built in the 17th century under the instruction of the
5th Dalai Lama, is the largest monastery in India and second-largest in the world after the
Potala Palace in
Lhasa, Tibet. It is one of the few monasteries of
Tibetan Buddhism that have remained protected from
Mao's
Cultural Revolution without any damage. In the 17th century, the 5th Dalai Lama
Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso (1617–1682), who achieved political supremacy over Tibet in 1642, imposed a tax called
Khrey over Monyul and instructed the construction of fortresses in Monpa area called
Dzong which served as centres for administration and tax collection. The fortresses built were Dirang Dzong, Taklung Dzong and Gyangkhar Dzong to collect tax from the
Dirang Monpa,
Kalaktang Monpa and
Tawang Monpa respectively. The officials who collected the taxes were called
Dzongpon. The main archaeological sites of the state include:
British India from the
Imperial Gazetteer of India, 1909 showing the Outer Line as the border of Assam Following the annexation of Assam after the
First Anglo-Burmese War, the British inherited the previous
Ahom Kingdom's tributary system in appeasing the frontier tribes known as
posa. The system was optimised with contracts to the leading chiefs to standardise who had the right to demand tribute from the British to curb raiding. With the goals of economic growth and extraction of tea, coal, oil and minerals in Assam, the British set out on a policy to curb tribal headhunting, civil wars and slavery. Prior to the
Simla Conference there was no declaration of British intentions towards the frontier tracts and tribes of the region. The region was treated as
terra nullius neither to the British Raj or to any other entity. The British in their official documentation did not assert any recognition or affiliation of the frontier tracts with Tibetan or Chinese polities. Their assumption rested in that tribal territories were within the British sphere of influence until clear Tibetan boundaries were evident. In the 19th century, there was uncertainty along the border and no urgency to demarcate it. The first territorial policy with the frontier tracts was the introduction of the
Inner Line system. This was designed to restrict people beyond a certain territory to avoid provoking hostile relations with tribal groups on the frontier. However, the Inner Line was less of an international boundary and more of a framework for migration management. Before 1880, tribal relations with the British were handled
ad-hoc by British officials. In 1880, a Frontier Tract Regulation was adopted and extended to any tract inhabited or freqeuented by barbarous or semi-civilised tribes adjoining or within the borders of any of the districts with the Territories under the administration of the Chief Commissioner of Assam. With this declaration, the Dibrugah Frontier Tract (east of the Subansiri River) was formally put under the administration of Lakhimpur with a political officer at Sadiya. The western section was in charge of the Deputy Commissioner of Darrang. In 1912, the sudden activity of Chinese military forces in the vicinity prompted the British to negotiate a formal delimitation of the international boundary. This was attributed to the
Qing Empire's attempts to establish Chinese authority in the Kham area of Tibet in 1910. The British recorded that various reports of dubious origin stated Chinese influence in the region. A party of Chinese were rumoured to have appeared in the Aka country, not far from the Inner Line boundary in the west. Chinese officials in Rima had also reportedly summoned the Mishmi chiefs to offer them to submit. Other rumours described a Chinese force ordered to march down the Siang river valley into the homeland of the Abors. As a response to these rumours, the British dispatched three missions into the hills. The Miri Mission explored the hills west of the Subansiri River. The Abor Mission between Subansiri and Siang was conducted along with the Mishmi Mission in the Sisseri, Dibang and Lohit river valleys. The goal of these missions was to establish the "natural and traditional frontier" between the frontier tribes and Tibet, and to inform the tribes that they were under British sovereignty and must adhere to British laws and punishments. The results of these missions led the boundary commission to create the
McMahon Line, which was influenced by the findings of the three missions. The one major exception was the incorporation of Tawang in the westernmost area. The inhabitants held close cultural and religious ties to Tibet and Bhutan, and the British had previously characterised this as a "dependancy of Thibet" not included in the tribal area designation. However, as knowledge of the Lhasa and Sub-Himalayan Buddhist communities grew, the accuracy of the statements of Tawang being a Tibetan dependency was questioned by the British and attributed to a category analogous to Bhutan and Sikkim, who were distinct groups with ties to the religious institution of Tibet. Another region between the tribals and Bhutan was considered highly undesirable, which in 1914 was examined by the British. The report by the Balipara Political Officer stated that the Tawang Monastery, the political authority of the region, was an offshoot of Drepung Monastery near Lhasa but recommend incorporation into the British regardless. Hence with these cosniderations the current McMahon line was drawn up. In 1912–13, the
British Indian government established the
North-East Frontier Tracts via three divisions: the Western section, the Central and Eastern section, and the Lakhimpur tract. In 1919, they eventually came to be called the Ballipara Frontier Tract, Lakhimpur Frontier Tract and Sadiya Frontier Tract.
The McMahon line , showing the
McMahon Line In 1913–1914, representatives of the
de facto independent state of Tibet and Britain met in India to define the borders of 'Outer Tibet' (with respect to China). British administrator
Sir Henry McMahon drew the
McMahon Line as the border between
British India and Tibet, placing
Tawang and other areas within British India. The Tibetan and British representatives devised the
Simla Accord including the McMahon Line, but the Chinese representatives did not concur. The Simla Accord denies other benefits to China unless it assents to the Accord. The Chinese position was that Tibet was not independent from China and could not sign treaties, so the Accord was invalid, like the
Anglo-Chinese (1906) and
Anglo-Russian (1907) conventions. British records show that the condition for the Tibetan government to accept the new border was that China must accept the Simla Convention. As Britain was not able to get an acceptance from China, Tibetans considered the McMahon line invalid. In 1938, two decades after the Simla Conference, the British finally published the Simla Accord as a bilateral accord and the Survey of India published a detailed map showing the McMahon Line as a border of India. In April 1938, a small British force led by Captain G. S. Lightfoot arrived in Tawang and informed the monastery that the district was now Indian territory. The Tibetan government at
Lhasa protested and its authority was restored after Lightfoot's return. In 1944, Britain established administrations in the area, from Dirang Dzong in the west to
Walong in the east. Administrative control extended over the area of the Tawang tract lying south of the
Sela Pass when
J.P. Mills set up an
Assam Rifles post at
Dirang Dzong and sent the Tibetan tax-collectors packing. Tibetan protests were brushed aside. However, no steps were taken to evict Tibet from the area north of the pass which contained Tawang town. The Tawang district remained under Tibetan authority until 1951.
Sino-Indian War Following the conclusion of British rule, India gained independence in 1947, while the People's Republic of China (PRC) was founded in 1949. The new Chinese administration maintained the position that the McMahon Line was not valid. In November 1950, the PRC was poised to take over
Tibet by force, and India supported Tibet. Journalist Sudha Ramachandran argued that China claimed Tawang on behalf of Tibetans, though Tibetans did not claim Tawang as part of Tibet. In February 1951, India sent
Ralengnao Khathing of
Manipur with a small escort and several hundred porters to Tawang and took control of the remainder of the Tawang tract from the Tibetans, removing the Tibetan administration. What is now Arunachal Pradesh was established as the
North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) in 1954.
Sino-Indian relations were cordial until 1960. Resurgence of the border disagreement was a factor leading to the
Sino-Indian War in 1962, during which China captured most of Arunachal Pradesh, including the Tawang tract. The war resulted in the termination of
barter trade with Tibet, although since 2007 the Indian government has shown signs of wanting to resume barter trade.
Renaming and statehood Under the leadership of
Indira Gandhi, The North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) was renamed Arunachal Pradesh on 20 January 1972, and it became a
union territory. Later on, Arunachal Pradesh became a state on 20 February 1987 during
Rajiv Gandhi's government. NB: K A A Raja, as Chief Commissioner to NEFA, under
Assam, whose Capital used to be
Shillong, later on went to become the first Lieutenant Governor to the Union Territory of Arunachal Pradesh.
Recent claims The
14th Dalai Lama did not originally recognise India's sovereignty over Arunachal Pradesh. As late as 2003, he said that "Arunachal Pradesh was actually part of Tibet". In January 2007, the Dalai Lama said that both Britain and Tibet had recognised the McMahon Line in 1914. In 2008, he said that Arunachal Pradesh was a part of India under the
agreement signed by Tibetan and British representatives. According to the Dalai Lama, "In 1962 during the India-China war, the
People's Liberation Army (PLA) occupied all these areas (Arunachal Pradesh) but they announced a unilateral ceasefire and withdrew, accepting the current international boundary". In recent years, China has occasionally asserted its claims on
Tawang. India rebutted these claims and told the Chinese government that Tawang is an integral part of India. India reiterated this to China when the two prime ministers met in
Thailand in October 2009. A report that the
Chinese Army had briefly invaded Arunachal Pradesh in 2016 was denied by India's
Minister of State for Home Affairs,
Kiren Rijiju. In April 2017, China strongly objected to a visit to Tawang by the Dalai Lama, as it had to an earlier visit by the US ambassador. China had objected to the Dalai Lama's previous visits to the area. In 2024,
The New York Times reported that, according to
satellite imagery, China had constructed villages along and inside of disputed territory within Arunachal Pradesh. Chinese individuals, called "border guardians", received annual subsidies to relocate to newly built villages and paid to conduct border patrols. These groups seek to decrease the influence of Indian government in the region and merge part of Arunachal Pradesh into
Nagaland. The
Indian army is present along the Tibetan border to thwart any Chinese incursion. Under the
Foreigners (Protected Areas) Order 1958 (India),
Inner Line Permits (ILPs) are required to enter Arunachal Pradesh through any of its checkgates on the border with
Assam. == Geography ==