Broadsword will spend the next one year on the India-China border

Maps above: the Sino-Indian border. The disputed areas are shaded maroon. I will be living and working over the coming year near the border town of Tawang.

Above: a lake near Bum La, on the Line of Actual Control, from where Chinese forces outflanked the Tawang defences in 1962.

Right:  My wife, Sonia, and I during a recent visit to Khinzemane, at the spot where the Dalai Lama was officially received by India when he fled Tibet in 1959.

Bad news for followers of defence hardware, but good news for the strategists and historians. I am leaving on Tuesday, along with my wife and family, to live in Arunachal Pradesh, for the next one year. We will be studying India's border policy and how it is viewed by the people of the border... we hope there will be a book at the end of this year.

The maps posted above show the areas disputed between India and China... in red shading. The close up of Arunachal gives you an idea of where we will base ourselves: in the Western corner of Arunachal, near the border with Bhutan, is the town of Tawang. We will live in a village called Dirang, which is located in the valley between Se La and Bomdi La. You can see both on the map.

While defence hardware will continue to be discussed on this blog, I will not be visiting any defence R&D and production facilities; I plan to spend my time exclusively in Arunachal Pradesh.

I will post on issues that come up during our research... on life on the China border... on the wonderful Monpa people who inhabit that area... and on other matters that come up on the blog.

Any bloggers passing through Dirang... do drop in.