Pemako is considered famous because it is the Nyingma master Dudjom Rinpoche's birthplace, and it is a prophesied refuge for Tibetan Buddhists by Padmasambhava.
In his 1994 Tibet Handbook, Hong Kong-born Victor Chan describes the extremely difficult trek from Pemakö Chung to the beyul Gonpo Ne, one of the remotest spots on earth.
A modern journey by Ian Baker and his National Geographic-sponsored team to Pemakö received book-length treatment in his 1994 The Heart of the World.
Political and religious turmoil in Tibet forced many Tibetans to join Tshangla people in Pemako, a land where religious serenity pledge through many revered Lamas who had been to this land, prophesied by Padmasambhava in the mid-8th century to be a land of final call where devotees would be flocking at the time of religious persecutions, the last sanctuary for Buddhism, with the time Pemako's popularity grew more and more, with the popularity many Tibetan people particularly from Kham followed their Lamas and settled alongside Tshangla populace.
Over the period of time, Tibetans and Tshangla migrants amalgamated to form an homogeneous group called Pemakopas (Pad-ma dkod pa).
Historically, Tshangla speakers migrated from eastern Bhutan around the 17th century during the Drukpa conquest led by Zhabdrung Ngawang Ngamgyal.
Ngatshang and Chitsang clans were there in Pemako, later joined by many more people who left their homeland in a quest for better life.
When the first Tsangla people arrived in Pemako they settled in the lower Yarlung valley, surrounded by Kongpopas in the northwest, Pobas in the northeast, and Lhopas in the south.
Ganden Phodrang had its governor stationed in Medog Dzong, who looked after the territory and established communications between Lhasa and Pemako.
Some regions of Pemako pay tax to the Sera Monastery in the form of grains, chillis, bamboo poles for prayer flags (Dharchen), products made of cane, medicinal herbs such as yertsa-goonbu, mushroom, and animal skin.
[11] Medog has a favorable climate caused by the relatively low elevations in parts of the county (down to just 600 m above sea level in the Yarlung Zangbo river valley) and by the South Asian monsoon, which brings moisture from the Indian Ocean.
[citation needed] Mêdog was the last county without permanent road access in Tibet, due to the landscape of several high-elevation mountain ranges.
A first, simple road was built in the 1970s, yet it was usually blocked by ice and snow on the mountains in the winter, making it only accessible seasonally.
In December 2010, the Chinese government announced a project to renovate the road into a permanent highway from Bomê to Mêdog County,[12] including excavation of a new tunnel under the mountain range.
Hiking to Mêdog is also a popular activity among tourists, although it is generally considered highly exhausting and risky.
The economic forests mainly include apples, citrus, bananas, plantains, lemons, figs, etc.
They also call themselves Monba as they originally migrated to the region of Mon which comprises present Bhutan and Tawang.
In exile Pemakopa people spread through the world, but mainly concentrated in Tibetan settlements of Miao choephelling, Tezu Dhargyeling, Tuting and area, Orissa-Jerang camp, Tibetan Women Centre – Rajpur, Clementown,[19] Delhi area.
[21] The Pemako Tshangla dialect (Tibetan: པདྨ་བཀོད་ཚངས་ལ་སྐད་, Wylie: Padma-kod Tsangla skad, also Padma kod skad) is the predominant language in the Pemako region of Tibet and an adjoining contiguous area south of the McMahon line in Arunachal Pradesh in India.
Dominant cultures that are coming in contact with Tsanglha is altering and influence the ability of this dialect to survive.