evidence: Sitap Singh, who returned from Barahoti, said he decided to remain well inside Indian territory after learning from other shepherds that the Chinese troopers appeared very edgy this time. "I thought a war was imminent," he said. [...] According to ITBP and local police officials, Barahoti is a bowl-shaped area where Indian troops are entrenched in one corner and the Chinese in the other. In between the two sides is pasture land where the shepherds graze their sheep. Each time a group of shepherds move into the pasture land, the PLA troopers come stomping in and scare them away. This has been the case since the 1962 war. [...] The shepherds of Barahoti belong to the nomadic Bhotiya tribe. Once the Bhotiyas used to live all along the border of India and Tibet and used to trade in wool and salt between the two places. Till 1962, a large number of Bhotiya caravans of mules and yaks used to travel into Tibet laden with Indian goods when the snow melted. They would barter these goods for Tibetan merchandise to be sold in India.