It was signed in Leh in September 1842 restoring the status quo ante bellum,[3] and respecting the "old established frontiers" between Ladakh and Tibet.

On 17 September 1842, the Treaty of Chushul was agreed in Leh between the Dogras and the Tibetans, executed by an exchange of notes which embodied the duties given to each other by both parties.

[7] But the agreement reached in September 1842 brought Zorawar Singh's ill-fated yet ambitious Dogra adventure into western Tibet to an abrupt end.

[5] Although the Dogras sought British support during the Dogra–Tibetan war, the treaty was ultimately signed through negotiations between the primary parties.

[8] The resulting Treaty of Chushul was a simple document with three articles that restored the status quo ante; only the second article stating that "in conformity with ancient usage, Tea and Pashm shall be transmitted by the Ladakh road" could be accepted because it was supposed to give Gulab Singh a monopoly of the shawl wool export trade, the main objective of his campaign in western Tibet.

[4] Some accounts suggest that a supplementary treaty with similar provisions was concluded between the Governor of Kashmir, representing the Sikh Empire, and Lhasa officials under the authority of the Emperor of China.

[12] No text appears to have been officially transmitted to the British during the time when the Treaty of Chushul was signed, although the Raja of Bushahr received a version of it.

The British did not receive the official text of the treaty until 1889, when the situation on the Sikkim-Tibet border prompted them to closely study the relations between the protectorates and Tibet.

Although the argument appears to have shown that the Chinese government "signed" the 1842 treaty and allowed Tibet to participate in it in the presence of Chinese representatives, China believed that it was not at all a proof that China had delegated Tibet a general power to independently conclude border agreements with neighbouring countries.