[8][9] However, the ninth century bilingual text Mahāvyutpatti translated yarsa as Sanskrit वार्षिकावासः (vārṣikāvāsaḥ), literally, the residence of the rainy season.

[12] Gar Yarsa lies on the road between Ladakh and Shigatse,[c] northeast of the present day Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, with all of which it has had trade relations.

[14][15] William Moorcroft regarded the Gar Valley as part of Changtang, whose main occupation was the production of pashmina wool.

[16] British explorer Cecil Rawling stated that Gartok had only "three good sized houses and twelve miserable hovels".

[18] The first clash with Ladakhi forces took place near the confluence of the Gartang and Sengge Zangbo, with the locations Langmar and Rala mentioned in the sources.

[19] After the end of the war, Galdan Chhewang organised the administration of the new province Ngari, and appointed Lozang Péma (Wylie: blo bzang pad ma) as governor (gzim dpon) before returning to Lhasa.

Commercially, Gartok had the advantage of being equidistant between the Changthang, whose shepherds brought pashmina wool for sale, and their buyers in Ladakh and Bashahr.

He was hoping to find Central Asian horses for East India Company's stud as well as any other profitable merchandise such as the pashmina wool.

[23] Some wool did make it to Bashahr, which was an ally of Tibet during the Tibet–Ladakh–Mughal War, as well as Zanskar (along with its territories of Lahul and Spiti), which was part of the family of west Tibetan kingdoms.

In 1817, after the Anglo-Nepalese War, W. J. Webb, the East Indian Company's surveyor of Kumaon and Garhwal, also made efforts to enter Tibet for the purpose of surveying.

[14][25] The British Empire elected to appoint a native Indian trade agent at Gartok, the first being Thakur Jai Chand.

Jai Chand found the conditions harsh, living in "extreme isolation and discomfort" in a three-room mud hut, along with a medical assistant and a clerk.

[25] By 1907, it was clear that Gartok trade agency was a "dead end", but the British continued to maintain it in order to assert their treaty rights.

In October 1951, the Chinese started to explore the possibility of opening a road route between Xinjiang and Rudok (through Keriya La).

[34] Sometime around this, China also appears to have changed course regarding the road from Xinjiang to Western Tibet, and chosen a route from Karghilik passing through the Karakash Valley and the Indian-claimed Aksai Chin region.