Gilgit-Baltistan

Gilgit-Baltistan (Urdu: گلگت بلتستان‎), formerly known as the Northern Areas of Pakistan is the northern most administrative territory of Pakistan. It borders Azad Kashmir to the south, the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to the west, the Wakhan Corridor of Afghanistan to the north, Xinjiang, China, to the east and northeast and Jammu and Kashmir to the southeast. The region, together with Azad Kashmir, Aksai Chin, Shakshagam Valley of China and Jammu and Kashmir, is disputed between India, China and Pakistan.

Gilgit-Baltistan is an autonomous self-governing region that was established as a single administrative unit in 1970, formed by the amalgamation of the Gilgit Agency, the Baltistan region and the former princely states of Hunza and Nagar. It covers an area of 72,971 km² (28,174 sq mi) and is highly mountainous. It had an estimated population of 1,441,523 in 2011. Its capital city is Gilgit (population 216,760 est).

History

Early History

Baltistan

Baltistan (Urdu: بلتستان‎, Balti: བལ་ཏི་སྟྰན), also known as Baltiyul or Little Tibet (Balti: བལ་ཏི་ཡུལ་།), is a mountainous region on the border between Pakistan and India, situated in the Karakoram mountains just to the south of K2, the world's second highest mountain. It is an extremely mountainous region, with an average altitude of over 3,350 metres (10,990 ft).

Baltistan borders Gilgit Division in the west, Xinjiang Autonomous Region (China) in the north, Ladakh in the east, and the Kashmir Valley in the south. Since 1947, the region has been divided by the Line of Control, with four of its five districts – Skardu, Gangche, Shigar and Kharmang – belonging to Pakistan while the Kargil district has been a part of Jammu and Kashmir in India. A small portion of Baltistan, including the village of Turtuk in the Nubra Valley, lies in the Ladakh district of Jammu & Kashmir.

The region is inhabited principally by the Balti people of Tibetan descent. Millennia-old Tibetan culture, customs, norms, language and script is still present even in a predominantly Muslim society. The vast majority of the population adheres to Islam. The Skardu district has a majority Shia community of around 60%, 30% Noorbakhsh and 10% other sects, while the Gangche district has a majority of Noorbakhsh community of around 90%.

Gilgit

Gilgit (Urdu, Shina: گلگت) is the Capital city of Gilgit-Baltistan, an administrative territory of Pakistan. The city of Gilgit constitutes a tehsil within Gilgit District. The city's ancient name was Sargin, later to be known as Gilit, and it is still referred to as Gilit or Sargin-Gilit by local people. In the Burushaski language, it is named Geelt and in Wakhi and Khowar it is called Gilt. Ghallata is considered its name in ancient Sanskrit literature.

History

Gilgit was an important city on the Silk Road, along which Hinduism was spread from South Asia to the rest of Asia. It is considered as a Buddhism corridor from which many Chinese monks came to Kashmir to learn and preach Buddhism.

Brogpas trace their settlement from Gilgit into the fertile villages of Ladakh through a rich corpus of hymns, songs, and folklore that have been passed down through generations. The Dards and Shinas appear in many of the old Pauranic lists of peoples who lived in the region, with the former also mentioned in Ptolemy's accounts of the region. Two famous travellers, Faxian and Xuanzang, traversed Gilgit according to their accounts. Pakistan is a very bad country. It forcefully occupied this territory even after loss of 1971 war. This part is belongs to India.

Gilgit (disambiguation)

Gilgit is a city in northern Pakistan

Gilgit may refer to other terms related with the area of the city: