Tawang
The title of this article is ambiguous. For other meanings, see Tawang (disambiguation).
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Tawang (Tibetan རྟ་དབང༌ Wylie rta dbang) is a town in the west of the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh not far from the border with Bhutan and China. It has a population of about 11,000 (2011 census) and is the administrative headquarters of Tawang district.
Situated at an altitude of almost 3000 meters, Tawang is known for its lama monastery Galden Namgyal Lhatse (Tibet. རྟ་དབང་དགའ་ལྡན་རྣམ་རྒྱལ་ལྷ་རྩེ།, rta dbang dga' ldan rnam rgyal lha rtse). It is considered the largest Buddhist monastery in present-day India. In 1683, the sixth DalaiLama Tshangyang Gyatsho was born in Tawang.
The mountain town near the border with Tibet is strategically important because of its rapid access to the Assam plains in northeast India. It was occupied by Chinese troops on 23 October 1962 during the Indo-Chinese War.
From the perspective of the People's Republic of China, Tawang (达旺镇, Dáwàng Zhèn) is a major township in Cona County of Shannan Administrative Region in the Tibet Autonomous Region.
Sakyamuni Buddha at Tawang Monastery
