It passes through the towns of Rongli, Rhenock, Pedong, Algarah, in Sikkim and northern West Bengal.

The route from Gangtok passes through the towns of Sherathang, nearby Changu lake and alongside Nathu La and through Kupup.

In a war fought by Tibet and Damsang against Bhutan during 1675–79, Ajok captured a Bhutanese outpost at Dalingkot (Wylie: Brda gling).

By the time the British came on the scene, the area up to the Cho La–Jelep La range was under the control of Sikkim, and the Chumbi Valley beyond it was considered Tibet proper.

After the annexation of Kalimpong from Bhutan, the British started to constructing a cart road to Jelep La in 1884.

[citation needed] With the growing Russian influence in Tibet, a British expedition was sent via Jelep La to Lhasa in 1904 led by Colonel Francis Younghusband.

[citation needed] In 1910, to escape a Chinese invasion, the 13th Dalai Lama "accompanied by six ministers and a small escort" which included his close aide, diplomat and military figure Tsarong Dzasa, fled via Jelep La[11] to Sikkim and Darjeeling, where he stayed almost two years.