Doklam (Tibetan: འབྲོག་ལམ།, Wylie: ‘brog lam, THL: drok lam), called Donglang (Chinese: 洞朗) by China, is an area in Chumbi Valley with a high plateau and a valley, lying between China's Yadong County to the north, Bhutan's Haa District to the east and India's Sikkim state to the west. Since the 1960s, China and Bhutan have disputed sovereignty over the Doklam area. The dispute has not been resolved despite several rounds of border negotiations between Bhutan and China. The area is of strategic importance to all three countries.

In 1988, the Chinese People's Liberation Army entered the Doklam plateau and successfully took control of the area. In June 2017, China attempted to extend a road on the Doklam Plateau southward, prompting Indian troops to enter the area in an attempt to stop the project, which triggered a two-month border standoff between the two sides. On 28 August, India and China withdrew their troops from the standoff in Doklam. Since then, China has continued to control most of the Doklam area and built a village called Pangda there.

The Imperial Gazetteer of India, representing the 19th century British view of the territory, states that the Dongkya range that separates Sikkim from the Chumbi Valley bifurcates at Mount Gipmochi into two great spurs, one running south-west and the other running south-east. Between these two spurs runs the valley of the Dichu or Jaldhaka river.

The Dongkya range that normally runs in the north–south direction gently curves to east–west at the southern end of the Chumbi Valley, running through the Batang La and Sinchela passes and sloping down to the plain. A second ridge to the south, called the Zompelri or Jampheri ridge, runs parallel to the first ridge, separated by the Doklam or Doka La valley in the middle. At the top of the valley, the two ridges are joined, forming a plateau. The highest points of the plateau are on its western shoulder, between Batang La and Mount Gipmochi, and the plateau slopes down towards the southeast. Between the two ridges lies the valley Torsa Nala (called Doklam River by the Chinese), which joins the Amo Chu river about 15 km to the southeast.

The 89 km² (34 sq mi) area between the western shoulder of the plateau and the mouth of Torsa Nala is called Doklam by China. In the Tibetan language, "Doklam", or more properly "Droklam", means a nomad's path. The said path can be seen in Maps 5–7, which runs from the village of "Shuiji" in the vicinity of Sangbay (Sangbe), climbing up to the Doklam plateau and descending to the Amo Chu valley through the Sinche La pass. It continues along the river to the hamlet of Asam on what was then regarded as the border of Tibet, and proceeds to the town of Rinchengang, which was a border trade mart. According to scholar Jigme Yeshe Lama, such paths were used for ages by traders, nomads and pilgrims.

India's Sikkim state lies to the west of the Dongkya range, the western shoulder of the Doklam plateau and the 'southwest spur' issuing from Mount Gipmochi. This spur is cut by the Dichu river (also called Jaldhaka) which originates below the Jelep La pass and enters Bhutan. The 'southeast spur', called Zompelri ridge, separates Bhutan's Haa District (to the north) from the Samtse (to the south).

Bhutan's claimed border runs along the northern ridge of the Doklam plateau until Sinchela and then moves down to the valley to the Amo Chu river. China's claim of the border includes the entire Doklam area within the Chumbi Valley, ending at the Zompelri ridge on the south and the confluence of the Torsa Nala with Amo Chu on the east.

Scholar Susan Walcott counts China's Chumbi Valley, to the north of Doklam, and India's Siliguri Corridor, to the south of Doklam, among "strategic mountain chokepoints critical in global power competition". John Garver has called the Chumbi Valley "the single most strategically important piece of real estate in the entire Himalayan region". The Chumbi Valley intervenes between Sikkim and Bhutan south of the high Himalayas, pointing towards India's Siliguri Corridor like a "dagger".