Rudok

Rudok, also spelt Rutok and Rutog, more properly Rudok Dzong (Tibetan: རུ་ཐོག་དགོན, Wylie: Ru thogs rdzong), is a town that served as the historical capital of the Rudok area in Western Tibet on the frontier with Ladakh. In the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, it is described as being "picturesquely situated" on the side of a hill standing isolated in the plain near the east end of Lake Pangong.

Initially part of Ladakh when the kingdom was founded in the 10th century, Rudok was separated from Ladakh after of the Tibet–Ladakh–Mughal War in 1684 and annexed to Central Tibet. Close economic relations between Ladakh and Rudok nevertheless continued until the Chinese annexation of Tibet in 1949. China discontinued trade between Ladakh and Rudok, and developed Rudok into a military base for prosecuting its border claims against Ladakh.

Around the year 2000, the Chinese administration of Tibet built a new Rutog Town about 10 km east of Rudok, adjacent to the China National Highway 219, and moved the county headquarters there. The original town is now regarded as a "village" (Chinese: 日土村; pinyin: Rì tǔ cūn) within the township of the new town. The original town also took considerable damage during the Cultural Revolution and lost much of its grandeur. It is still recommended as a tourist destination by a number of guide books.