Why is it called Sach Pass? The story of Sachche Jot

Sach Pass is properly called Sachche Jot. "Jot" is the local word for a mountain pass, and the pass is named after its goddess, Sachche Jot Wali Mata. "Sach Pass" is a simplification. The PWD changed the name on its signboard in 2024 after a local campaign, about 50 years after the error crept in.

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What is the pass’s real name?

Sachche Jot (सचे जोत). In November 2024 Amar Ujala reported that the PWD’s Pangi division had replaced “Sach Pass” with “Sachche Jot” on its information board. That came after a campaign of about eight years by Narayan Singh, a retired bank officer from Karyuni village, backed by the Pangi Kalyan Sangh.

The district language officer, Tukesh Kumar Sharma, told the paper that the 1965 gazette records the name as Sachche Jot. The shorter “Sach Pass” seems to have spread because it was easier to say and write. It then stuck for about 50 years on signs, maps and in the press. You’ll still see Sach Pass, Saach Pass and Sache Jot used for the same place, including on this site, because that’s what people search for.

What does “Sachche Jot” mean?

A jot is a mountain pass. The word is used across Chamba: Padhri Jot and Darati Jot are two others nearby. Amar Ujala reports that Sachche Jot is named after the deity of the pass, Sachche Jot Wali Mata, the goddess of Sachche Jot. Unlike many passes, it isn’t named after a village or the shape of the land. There’s no place called “Sach” near the pass in Churah or Pangi.

The top has a small shrine. When the PWD finished clearing the road in June 2024, its officials and workers held a prayer ceremony at the temple there before letting traffic through. Amar Ujala reports that Pangwals, the people of Pangi, traditionally light incense and pray at the jot before leaving the valley.

Why did Pangi depend on this pass?

Because for a long time it was the only way out. The pass crosses the Pir Panjal, the range between the Chamba valley and Pangi, at about 4,414 m. On the far side, Pangi sits in the deep gorge of the Chenab. Its other links, east to Lahaul and west to Kishtwar, are long and, in winter, often cut. Amar Ujala calls Sachche Jot the route that was, for a long time, Pangi’s only way out.

Local oral tradition, as the paper reports it, says Pangwals came over the jot in the Mughal era to settle in the valley and protect their faith, and that raiders who lost their way at the pass turned back. These are stories, not documented history, but they show what the pass means to people on both sides.

When did it become a road?

Gradually. A photograph in the South Asia Commons collection, captioned “Satrundi–Sach pass, Chamba” and dated to about 1910, shows the route long before motor traffic. The travel writer Rishad Saam Mehta, crossing by car in 2016, described it as “for years a walking track or a cart track at best”, used mainly by Gaddi shepherds as a short cut.

The motorable road was built over the following decades and is still unpaved over the top. It isn’t a quiet history. In 1998, 35 people, most of them labourers working on the Sach Pass road, were killed by militants at Satrundi and Kalaban. Today the road is maintained by the PWD’s Churah and Pangi divisions, and the district opens and closes it by order each year (see who opens and closes Sach Pass).

Where to go from here

• The road as it is today, stop by stop: Chamba to Killar over Sach Pass
• Whether it’s open right now: is Sach Pass open?
• The village at the foot of the climb: stays in Bairagarh