Why We Saw The Second Attack From China Only After 1000 Years?

India faced invasions from the North Eastern frontier, and the first one was in the year 649 AD. This was the first recorded instance when India faced an invasion from the Chinese, who had been ruling the area beyond the Himalayas in the North Eastern region.

Taizhong, a ruler of the Tang Dynasty had sent Wang Xuanceto India in the year 648 AD to the court of Harshavardhana as an ambassador. This was done as a returning gesture as Harshavardhana too had sent an envoy to the Tang Court. But in the meantime, Harshavardhana had died and amidst the chaos that followed, a local ruler called Arunasa attacked and plundered the entire convoy of Wang Xuance, when he reached the Kingdom of Harsha in 649 AD. Wang had to flee to Tibet to save his life. However, later that year Wang invaded the Kingdom of Tirabhukti (in modern day Bihar) which was being ruled by Arunasa. King Arunasa was defeated and was taken captive to China and never returned back.

The second invasion from the eastern side came in 1679, during thebetween the 5th Dalai Lama and Drukpa Kagyu. Another instance where there was a clash from the North Eastern kingdoms was the Battle of Chushul, where the armies of the Qing Dyansty and Dogras met before a peace treaty was signed. The clash took place in 1842 after thehad taken place. At present, Chushul is a small town in Leh region of India.

Some reasons for the low frequency of the attacks from the North Eastern side were:

• Ancient India was ruled by powerful rulers who had subjugated the rulers of far off lands such as Central Asia. The first invasion happened after the death of Harshavardhana.

• The Chinese Dynasties were generally concentrated beyond Tibet, which lies in between India and China.

• When they expanded their empire, they found the North Western front an easier method to invade India — The Mongols, i.e. Genghis Khan and Timur invaded via Afghanistan. The Tibetans were not so expansionist.

• The Himalayas always provided a one way ticket into India – the supply chain was broken once the winter started in the Himalayas leading to the perishment of the invading army.

• India wasn't looked as a major threat by the Tibetan and Chinese Empires, and maintained healthy diplomatic relations with them.

Thus, India was attacked by China again only in 1962, when the Chinese grew expansionist and tried to take over land of other nations. This happened when India was not so strong and was still rebuilding itself while the Chinese had connected their supply lines.