Battle of To-yo
Deep in western Tibet at over 4,500 metres, the invading army, frozen and short of food, was overwhelmed. Zorawar Singh fell fighting.
In May 1841 General Zorawar Singh, having conquered Ladakh and Baltistan for the Dogra raja Gulab Singh and the Lahore Durbar, led an army of some five thousand men, Dogras, Ladakhis and Baltis, into western Tibet.
He took Rudok, Gartok and Taklakot and reached the sacred lake of Mansarovar. But he stayed too long. When winter came, at over 4,500 metres, his army was frozen and short of food, and the Tibetans, reinforced from Lhasa, attacked. On 12 December 1841, at To-yo near Taklakot, Zorawar Singh was killed and his army destroyed; many of his men lost fingers and toes to frostbite.
The Tibetans built a monument, the Singh Chorten, over his remains, and are said to have kept pieces of his flesh as relics of a brave man.
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