Gilgit

Gilgit (;

Shina

: ; ur, ) is the capital city of

Gilgit–Baltistan

,

Pakistan

. The city is located in a broad

valley

near the confluence of the

Gilgit River

and

Hunza River

, and is a major tourist destination in Pakistan, serving as a hub for trekking and

mountaineering

expeditions in the

Karakoram

mountain range.

Gilgit was once a major centre for

Buddhism

; it was an important stop on the ancient

Silk Road

, and today serves as a major junction along the

Karakoram Highway

with road connections to

China

as well as the Pakistani cities of

Skardu

,

Chitral

,

Peshawar

, and

Islamabad

. Currently, it serves as a frontier station for the local tribal areas. The city's economic activity is mainly focused on

agriculture

, with wheat, maize, and barley as the mainly-produced crops.

Etymology

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 the local people. The native

Khowar

and Wakhi-speaking people refer to the city as ''Gilt'', and in Burushaski, it is called ''Geelt''.

History

Early history

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 people who lived in the region, with the former also mentioned in Ptolemy's accounts of the region.

Buddhist era

Gilgit was an important city on the Silk Road, along which Buddhism 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. Two famous Chinese Buddhist pilgrims, Faxian and

Xuanzang

, traversed Gilgit according to their accounts.

According to Chinese records, between the 600s and the 700s, the city was governed by a Buddhist dynasty referred to as ''Little Balur'' or ''Lesser Bolü'' (). They are believed to be the Patola Shahis dynasty mentioned in a Brahmi inscription, and are devout adherents of Vajrayana Buddhism.

In mid-600s, Gilgit came under Chinese suzerainty after the fall of

Western Turkic Khaganate

due to Tang military campaigns in the region. In late 600s CE, the rising

Tibetan Empire

wrestled control of the region from the Chinese. However, faced with growing influence of the Umayyad Caliphate and then the

Abbasid Caliphate

to the west, the Tibetans were forced to ally themselves with the Islamic caliphates. The region was then contested by Chinese and Tibetan forces, and their respective vassal states, until the mid-700s. Chinese record of the region last until late 700s at which time the Tang's western military campaign was weakened due to the

An Lushan Rebellion

.

The control of the region was left to the Tibetan Empire. They referred to the region as Bruzha, a toponym that is consistent with the ethnonym " Burusho" used today. Tibetan control of the region lasted until late-800s CE.

Gilgit manuscripts

This corpus of manuscripts was discovered in 1931 in Gilgit, containing many Buddhist texts such as four sutras from the Buddhist canon, including the famous Lotus Sutra. The manuscripts were written on

birch bark

in the Buddhist form of

Sanskrit

in the

Sharada script

. They cover a wide range of themes such as

icon

ometry,

folk tales

,

philosophy

,

medicine

and several related areas of life and general knowledge.

The Gilgit manuscripts
are included in the

UNESCO

Memory of the World

register. They are among the oldest

manuscript

s in the world, and the oldest manuscript collection surviving in Pakistan, having major significance in the areas of Buddhist studies and the evolution of Asian and

Sanskrit literature

. The manuscripts are believed to have been written in the 5th to 6th centuries AD, though some more manuscripts were discovered in the succeeding centuries, which were also classified as Gilgit manuscripts.

Many of the original manuscripts from Gilgit can be found in the

National Archives of India

and the Pratap Singh Museum in Srinigar. Two manuscripts collected by the orientalist Sir Aurel Stein are in the

British Library

in London. They include a rare paper version of the Lotus Sutra.

As of 6 October 2014, one source claims that the part of the collection deposited at the Sri Pratap Singh Museum in

Srinagar

was irrecoverably destroyed during the 2014 India–Pakistan floods.

Pre-Trakhàn

Trakhàn Dynasty

Gilgit was ruled for centuries by the local Trakhàn Dynasty, which ended about 1810 with the death of Raja Abas, the last Trakhàn Raja. Frederick Drew (1875) ''The Jummoo and Kashmir Territories: A Geographical Account'' E. Stanford, London
OCLC 1581591
/ref> The rulers of

Hunza

and Nager also claim origin with the Trakhàn dynasty. They claim descent from a heroic Kayani Prince of Persia, '' Azur Jamshid'' (also known as ''Shamsher''), who secretly married the daughter of the king ''Shri Badat''.

She conspired with him to overthrow her cannibal father. Sri Badat's faith is theorised as Hindu by some and Buddhist by others. However, considering the region's Buddhist heritage, with the most recent influence being Islam, the most likely preceding influence of the region is Buddhism.

Prince Azur Jamshid succeeded in overthrowing King Badat who was known as the ''Adam Khor'' (literally "man-eater"), often demanding a child a day from his subjects, his demise is still celebrated to this very day by locals in traditional annual celebrations. In the beginning of the new year, where a Juniper procession walks along the river, in memory of chasing the cannibal king ''Sri Badat'' away.

Azur Jamshid abdicated after 16 years of rule in favour of his wife ''Nur Bakht Khatùn'' until their son and heir ''Garg'', grew of age and assumed the title of

Raja

and ruled, for 55 years. The dynasty flourished under the name of the Kayani dynasty until 1421 when Raja Torra Khan assumed rulership. He ruled as a memorable king until 1475. He distinguished his family line from his stepbrother ''Shah Rais Khan'' (who fled to the king of Badakshan, and with whose help he gained Chitral from ''Raja Torra Khan''), as the now-known dynastic name of Trakhàn. The descendants of ''Shah Rais Khan'' were known as the ''Ra'issiya Dynasty''.

1800s

The area had been a flourishing tract but prosperity was destroyed by warfare over the next fifty years, and by the great flood of 1841 in which the river

Indus

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